Atomic Renegade
by Shaneman17
Summary: When the hearts of men grow as black as the void and no hope can be found, sometimes all it takes is a single spark to banish the darkness. When a man from a forgotten time returns home he finds a war torn galaxy waiting for him. What is a man to do for those who live in such grim darkness but to drag them kicking and screaming into the light.
1. Into The Grimdark

**This is what you get when you watch both The Storyteller and If The Emperor Had A Text To Speech Device at one in the morning.**

**As for the specifics of this story, well most warhammer Crossover first I've read tend to involve someone from the warhammer universe being dropped into another world but there are very few that do it in the opposite manner. I decided to do one of those myself.**

** Now I am not a warhammer junkie and my knowledge of the setting mostly general with me looking up details when I find something interesting so don't expect me to go listing off these obscure references to something that happened in this one book or manual or whatever. I am willing to look up something you guys deem important to the story. Oh and there is no set date for this fic, only that it is in the forty first millennium. **

_In the grim darkness of the far future there is only WAR._

_And WAR…WAR never changes._

**Chapter 1: Into the Grimdark**

_… Loading…_

_Begin Transmission? Y/N_

_Y_

_…Transmission Playing…_

"Is this thing on? Oh wait there's the light." A young male's voice says. The camera focuses on a tall and very well built young man looking no older than twenty one. His skin is of paler complexion than usual, with short brown hair coming down to his ears with stubble along his jaw and cheeks. His face was some what more symmetrical than average with only a slightly crooked bottom left incisor to offset his image. The only true oddity about him being a strange set of silver armor covered by a black duster and his unnatural bright green eyes.

"Hello Milky Way Galaxy! Wait shit do you guys even remember that name? Ah doesn't matter." The young man says with a shrug. "Look, most of you don't know who I am and those of you who do either want me dead, my skull or my soul. So let me introduce myself. The name's Albert, Albert Grimm." Albert said with a small grin.

"Now you all might be wondering how you are watching this video right now. We'll that's because I hijacked your systems and I can only imagine just how pissed those mechanicus assholes on Mars are. Especially since this is currently being broadcast to the entirety of the galaxy." Albert said as he pulled up an odd white chair to sit on.

"Just how am I doing this you may ask? Well it involves using a magnetar as a power source and broadcasting this via multidimensional waves that are being reflected off of ships currently traveling through the warp and being filtered through a plane of existence that's a few degrees to the left of reality that I have dubbed the Mirror. But on to more important matters than how im broadcasting throughout the materium."

Albert's smile drops with a sigh and is replaced with a much more somber look. "I'll be honest with you all, this galaxy sucks, but recent events have made it just a bit less horrible. Now your superiors, your leaders and your holy men are probably all spinning their own tale of what happened, but I'm going to give you something you have all been denied." He leaned forward in his chair, his bright eyes narrowing as he seemed to stare into the soul of every single man, woman, child and abomination that was watching.

"The truth."

Lifting up his left arm, Albert pressed a button on some wrist mounted device and with a wrist mounted device. With a flash of green light, a small model of some planet appeared In his hand. It had detailed images of oceans, continents and the terrain.

"This model right here? This is Earth, my home. These days however it goes by a different name, one you are all probably familiar with. Holy Terra." He snickered at this. "Holy, yeah right. You see once upon a time Holy Terra was once a place of beauty and prosperity, not the ball of gold and idiocy it is now. Your probably wondering how the hell I know this, right? Well you see I am old. Very, VERY OLD. As in one of the few people older than me is the Emperor and I don't know if he really counts as alive anymore. Just goes to show what the right genetics and exposure to FEV will do. Granted I was frozen or most of that time but the point still stands."

Reaching behind his chair, Albert pulled out a bottle full of a glowing blue liquid and took a sip before resuming. "Let's start at the beginning. At about three quarters of the way through the twenty-first century, twenty seventy-seven to be exact, we humans were confined to our own little planet of Earth. In the grand scheme of things we were low tech compared to now but we were making massive strides in advancing technology and science. Hand held computers, cold fission, the beginnings of interstellar travel and completely terraforming inhospitable environments. Then we blew ourselves up." Emphasized this by opening his fist while making a boom sound.

"You see we had rival countries instead of planets back then and the two most powerful were America and China. Now you obviously can't build all this tech without securing the resources needed and at the time Earth was running low on just about everything. Those two nations went to war and promptly nuked the world in a way not unlike Krieg." He said this as he grabbed a Death Korps gas mask from off screen before throwing it over his shoulder.

"The planet was turned into a bunch of radioactive wastelands and transforming Earth into a Death World. After two centuries of the survivors killing and murdering each other over the scraps, I was born. Grew up in a Vault, an under ground nuclear bunker until I was forced out at nineteen years old. Then I went and changed world." He grinned.

"I emerged to find America's capitol to be a charred and irradiated wasteland full of slavers, killers and mutants. I killed so much and had come so closing to dying so many times that I started thinking of death as an old friend. In that barren land I watched my father died but his dream lived on. His dream to bring back fresh clean water for everyone and in turn give the land a nudge towards recovery and jump starting the environment. Then I traveled to a place called New Vegas, a city state that was mostly in one piece and where civilization was beginning to make a comeback. I seized power and took control of the city. Then I conquered the Republic in the land of California and then the land west of the Mississippi. A year later I had control of Boston and the entire east coast. Three years later I had all of North America and in five I had the western hemisphere. In ten, the world." Albert had a wide smile plastered on his face, though to careful observers it seemed tinged with sadness.

"I was the king of Earth and the ruler of humanity long before your emperor came around. I ruled for about three centuries. During that time I rebuilt civilization and advanced our technology past the old world's. The world was green again, the water was clean and the nastier monsters were hunted to extinction. We were on the cusp of taking too the stars en masse when the xenos attacked. They were nothing like the Eldar, Tau, Orks or Tyranids. They weren't some massive fleet or empire, but desperate refugees from another galaxy. Apparently they were running from what their texts called "the Insectoids" that devoured all biological life. Not too hard to connect the dots there.

They saw earth as the perfect garden world to set up shop, the only issue was getting rid of its low tech inhabitants. To bad for them they were already on their way here when we nuked ourselves and couldn't turn around.

So there I was starring down a few thousand alien ships while I was manning the only interstellar spacecraft we had. Thankfully their species valued amoral scientists and put all their resources towards running their experiments rather than put together any truly effective military. They came in with their energy shields down, not expecting us to know they were coming. Then a few hundred thousand nuclear warheads came streaking towards them from all around the globe and lit up the sky. It was beautiful in its own horrible way, the way the vacuum almost seemed to burn."

Albert had a far away look in his eyes, lost in the memory before shaking his head. "Sorry about that. Anyways the nukes destroyed almost all of them save for their flagship. It was a massive thing, about the size of a continent with several very big guns. To bad it got horribly damaged by nuclear fire but it was still kicking so I decided to destroy it myself." He said shaking his head.

"Really that's where it all went wrong. You see my ship was coming around to blow it to hell after I destroyed a good third of the thing when the ship and it's surrounding area started glowing white, and since I was close enough to be in spitting distance, that included my ship. Then there's a flash and the next thing I know is everything starts buzzing before going back to normal. I don't notice anything wrong at first so I just did what I set out to do, wipe those Zetan bastards off the face of existence. A few minutes later and there I was watching the last of an entire alien race die by my hands. Sure they were planning to kill us all but genocide still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. So I turn the ship around to head back to earth when I realize…it wasn't there. Not sign that it had even existed and no familiar star to let me know if I was even in the right system.

A few days later I find out that the little green bastards had set up a way-station to fall back to in case of emergencies and had teleported themselves back there, with me tagging along. And do you want to know the best part!?" The man said with a bark of forced laughter. "I wasn't even in the right god damned galaxy anymore! Do you know how far away the Andromeda galaxy is? Two point forty five MILLION light-years. So what do I do? Well I cry, despair, drink all my booze, lament on how fucked I was, get angry at myself and the universe, buck up, prepare my auto pilot, say a quick prayer to God, no not that god, and settle down for a long nap."

Albert stopped talking and shook his head. He took a few more swigs of his blue drink before emptying it and chucking it off screen where it broke with a crash.

"I knew things would be different when I got back but…seriously? This is what I come back to? I mean I'm glad we're not considered an endangered species anymore but this corrupted tumor of an Imperium is not what I had in mind! I mean a God-Emperor? Evil and inane dark gods? Space Marines and magic elves? And it's FUCK not FRAK!"

Breathing heavily, the armored man closes his eyes and forces himself to calm down. With a long exhale he runs a gloved hand through his short hair. "Anyways, after arriving above Earth, no I'm not calling it Holy Terra, and see how much it has changed in nearly wept. Thankfully an Administratum ship was flying by and most of your cyber security sucks when up against a real genuine AI. Yes I have several, no its not evil so you cogboys can go shove a toaster up what's left of your ass. After about a week of research into things most of you probably don't know exist, I was reasonably depressed and just a smidgen suicidal, so I went where any sane man goes when horribly weighed down by life without access to a therapist. A place where my tale begins. In a shitty little bar."

…

With a thunk, I slammed the largest mug down on the dirty wooden table as yet another challenger collapses to the floor. With a mix of cheers of excitement and moans of disappointment, money changed hands and a not so small bag of coins was tossed in front of me. It was almost enough to get me to smile. To bad that for the past week my usual devil may care attitude had been reduced to the cold self loathing depression one gets when you realize everything you worked for, bleed for and killed for amounted to nothing.

Sure, humanity now had a galactic empire spanning millions if not billions of worlds, but it came at the cost of corruption, a religion deifying some emperor and an obsession with skulls. It seemed that the leaders of humanity souls had become so dark and twisted it would have given most sane raiders pause. Then again most raiders were sadistic and so black hearted they thought the best decorations for their bases were the corpses of their victims, so they probably would have fit right in. Then there were the not so nice neighbors that called the galaxy home. If I read the 'procured' information right, there were giant green idiots who seemed to love fighting and looting that somewhat reminded me of super mutants, scary metal skeleton things, an adaptable hive mind race that wanted to eat everything, blue space communists, arrogant space elves, arrogant space elves with a thing for sadistic and masochistic torture, and finally what could be best described as the forces of hell.

Now, I'm not one to discount a story as there was usually a grain of truth to be found, but if I hadn't had my own encounters with something otherworldly I world have thought it nothing more than ghost stories meant to keep the populace in line and dependent on the Imperium to keep them safe. Then again, if the records were right then the usual modus operandi was to 'purge' anyone who knew that these forces of Chaos even existed and weren't authorized to know. If that weren't enough they seemed to come in several flavors. Ones that were all about blood, killing and skulls, ones that reveled in excess of ever kind of act from drugs and sex to murder and pain. Another seemed obsessed with plots and nonsensical plans that make no sense and finally ones that were all about plagues and diseases that made my skin crawl, and apparently some of their diseases could do that in the literal sense.

Obviously I no better option than either wallow in self pity or try and ultimately fail to get drunk. Unfortunately I had drank all my alcohol on board some thirty-seven thousand years ago and was not in the mood to make more. So a few hours jump to a nearby system and teleporting down to planet V45-839's second largest city called Alfons, I started asking around for the nearest pub. Communication was a bit awkward but the Low Gothic that seemed to be the standard language was a mix of Latin, English and German. Thankfully I was fluent in all three as three hundred years of ruling earth had been plenty of time to learn most known languages.

The bar itself was easy to miss, what with it being in some back alley surrounded by these overly large Gothic style buildings and churches that seemed so common. If the architecture wasn't such an eye sore I would have considered them masterpieces. As it was they were so large and over the top it seemed ridiculous. The bar may have been small and had an unimaginative name, The Drunkards Club, but it had a good atmosphere. Dark enough to feel like you could relax, without worrying if someone was sneaking up on you. The yellow walls were decorated with old and faded propaganda posters for the Imperial Guard, though most were vandalized via marker ink with the ones featuring a well dressed officer in a peaked cap tended to have the highest number of alterations. Most were not very nice. The air was filled with smoke from cigarettes or lho-sticks as they were called now and every patron had a drink in hand while watching the local sports on a few TVs attached to the walls. Most of the men here were in some form of military uniform with a few still wearing their armor. The rest were either well muscled blue collar workers or the shifty eyed rats I pegged as the local criminal element.

I looked out of place compared to everyone else for several reasons. The first was the fact I could look down on everyone here, as standing at six foot six I must much taller than you average man. Most of it was natural but a couple inches came from some slight mutations and not so slight cybernetics. The other was that I was wearing clothes that looked liked had actually been cleaned in the last decade. Black steeled toed combat boots, grey jeans, a white long-sleeved silk shirt and a well made black duster. The duster had a circle bisected by both vertical and horizontal lines sewn on the back with golden thread, the old astronomical symbol for Earth. It had been the symbol for my old empire as a reminder of what we had to take back and care for, but now it was just an old flag to carry on my back. Of course the quality and colors of my outfit stood out amongst the worn green, greys, dark blues and browns of the other patrons.

I got a few glares thrown my way but I ignored it in favor of the bartender. Placing a few coins that I had shamelessly pickpocketed from a few random citizens down on the counter, I ordered a mug of something called amasec and downed it in one go. It reminded me of beer, if with a bit less foam. I then ordered another. Then another. The rounds continued like that until I started hearing mutters from the others as the seemed to notice that I hadn't so much as gotten a buzz.

I was on mug number twenty when one of the more sober guardsman seemed almost offended on my inability to get drunk and calling me a high born that who thought he could come into their hangout, trying to show how much of a man he was. I didn't really get what he was talking about but as long as he wasn't attacking he could yell me all day for all I cared.

Then came the man's challenge.

I almost missed it but when he when a started talking about the "Wolves Piss bet" everyone looked our way. It was rather simple, we both drink a cup of some specialty made booze and whoever didn't pass out first won. By the smirk on his face it seemed he thought I would back down and he could go back to his buddies and talk about how he publicly embarrassed some "highborn." The smirk fell when I accepted.

As we sat around the table, I could see money changing hands and the small crowd got excited about the possibility of winning some quick cash on their chosen bet. The bartender brought out two cups of a dark brown liquor and on the counter of three we chugged. It was strong. Very strong and had I not had plenty of experience drinking Moonshine made from yeast, refined Punta fruit and fission battery acid I'm pretty sure I would have coughed it up. As was, I finished the drink just in time to see the other man finish his, stand up to boast of his success then promptly fall face first into an unconscious heap. The cheers victorious gamblers erupted immediately afterwards.

I was about to get up to leave when another cup was shoved into my hand and a different man took the seat across from me. Apparently it was tradition for the contest to continue until the winner was just as unconscious as the loser. So I took another drink while the other man joined the first on the floor if not as unconscious. Then it turned into a massive bet about how many swigs of the ale it would actually take to put me under while others joined in the drinking. After challenger number seven I actually started to feel a buzz coming on but I knew I couldn't stay here all night. I had to get back to my ship and figure out what I was going to do now that I was stuck in this god-forsaken galaxy.

"Alright boys, as much fun as this has been I need to get back home. I've got a existential crisis waiting for me and it's not going to solve itself." I said getting up and walking towards.

"Yeah leave you bastard. You cost me a weeks pay." A rather dirty looking man said with a scowl.

"Ah what's wrong Sig, can't lose with dignity? It's your fault you bet against a mini space marine." Another man said as he elbowed the scowling man in his ribs.

"Shut up ya idiot. The bastard's too small to be a marine."

"Who you calling an idiot you piece of grox shit!"

As I closed the door I gave a slight chuckle as I heard the wet thud of someone throwing a punch into someone's face. Walking along I wondered just what I could do with my life now. Before, I could focus my time on rebuilding civilization and improving the world. Now it was the galaxy itself that was screwed up and I was one man stuck between multiple different galactic superpowers that were each their own flavor of screwed up. Granted I was leaning towards the Imperium but it seemed that the entire thing was lead men who were either apathetic, idiotic, sadistic or a mix of all three. I couldn't even give them the blueprints to my gear as it seemed these 'Adeptus Mechanicus' priests would either consider my technology either so holy they would lock it away for safe keeping never to see the light of day again or see it as 'tech-heresy' that need to be destroyed with me along with it. I just didn't know what to do.

Most men while deep in thought would not have heard the faint footsteps while walking along at night, but I was better than that. I could hear multiple pairs of feet, six I believe, closing from behind.

I rolled my eyes as I heard the click of a switch blade. It was almost insulting. Turning around I was greeted by my correct assumption of six men. Their clothes were little more than rags and they had several pistols tucked into their pants waistbands and their faces were covered by dirty looking bandanas. The only one showing his face was the bald man with so many tattoos that I couldn't identify his skin color. His rather nasty looking smile was filled with dark yellow teeth and he was also the one who had pulled out the knife. Now that I had a good look at him I recognized his inked up face from one of the darkened corners of the bar, probably looking for an easy and drunk mark. Unfortunately for him he probably noticed me downing the drinks but not that I was still steady on my feet.

"Well hello there Mr. Fancy Ass. That's nice coat there, why don't you hand that and that neat little bag of Thrones over and maybe we don't carve you open and take your organs as well. Hell, you might just get a cut of the profit there, I mean you only need one lung, right?" Baldy said flourishing his (rather rusty) knife. His sarcastic remark elicited several chuckles from the others like the good little minions they were supposed to be.

I…was unimpressed.

"Ok, no. You are not robbing me and if you and your friends want to live you'll drop your weapons and walk away. If not than there be nothing left but charred meat for the rats as I turn you into a bunch of burning corpses. You have five seconds. Five."

Baldy's slack jawed expression would have been comical if his teeth weren't such an eyesore. He was at a loss for words, probably not used to his targets to actually threatening him.

"Four"

The minions were more vocal about their shock, mostly muttering things to themselves about all the nasty things they were going to do to me

"Three."

And that was as far as I got. It was always satisfying to pull a gun in the middle of a conversation. With experience born over three hundred years, I pulled out the Colt 6552 10mm pistol out of my shoulder holster in a fraction of a second. Taking aim at the furthest thug, I pulled the trigger and there was an explosion and sound of flames boiling away flesh.

Back in the Capital Wasteland, I had come across a prototype pistol called the Zhu-Rong v418. It had an experimental barrel and firing mechanism that coated all bullets that it fired with incendiary substances. It had taken a few years at the Big Mountain labs to reverse engineer the weapon, but the results were phenomenal. The same technology could be applied to just about any ballistic weaponry and with more than just incendiary rounds. Irradiated rounds, turning bullets into small explosives to even infusing plasma. And when massed produced they would have been legendary.

The 10mm bullet hit the man in the chest, right where his heart would be. He dropped instantly, but his dirty clothes caught fire and the flesh around the entrance wound was already catching. The next mugger caught a round to the throat. The third man actually got his pistol out and was taking aim when I put one flame covered bullet through his hand and a second between his eyes. The fourth went for his pistol as well, only to shoot himself in the gut. With a mental eye roll at him not putting on the safety, I turned to the fifth man and only saw his back as he tried to run away. He collapsed with two more bullets too the spine.

Despite his rather disgusting and unprofessional appearance, Baldy was quick to close the distance and attempted to cut me open even as his buddies died. To bad I had plenty of experience with psycho's wield pointy objects.

As he swung, my left hand lashed out and grabbed his wrist. Using his momentum against him, twisted his wrist so that as his body continued forward the blade was shoved to the hilt just below the right collar bone. Placing my right foot behind his left one, with a quick tug he slammed his back onto the hard ground with me kneeling over him. He grimaced as I simultaneously grabbed and twisted the knife while shoving the barrel of the pistol into his gut.

"You know something baldy? I was having a pretty shitty week and was trying to get drunk, if just to make myself feel better. Then you went and tried to mug me at least and chop me up to sell my organs at worst." I said smiling down at him. "Normally I would have been annoyed beyond belief at being ambushed by you and your merry men." I motioned towards the burning bodies and the one man bleeding to death. In an act of mercy, I put a round through his head rather than let him die a slow death by bleeding out.

"But you actually went and brightened my mood. Do you know why? Well its because as awful as reality is, me killing you makes it just a bit better. So…thank you for giving me that satisfaction." I was about to put a bullet into his skull when baldy broke into a fit of pained laughter.

"Wow, ya don't even just how frakked you are do ya? When my buddies learn what you did, they'll tear ya limb form limb. Put your head on a stick and wave it around for all the other cocksuckers to see. In the end, not even the Emperor will be able put your ass back together. Ha, if ya start beggin, I just might not have them ki-AH!" He screamed as I twisted the knife.

"Alright, I'm just going to ask this once and if you don't answer it the way I like, your insides will become your outsides. So say I wanted to say hello to these buddies of yours, where would I find them?" Emphasizing my point with the gun barrel pushing just a bit harder.

He was just about to talk back, when he took a look at my unwavering gaze and figured to not insult the nan who had him at gun point. "The old car factory. The one on Gutter Street, that's where they're at. Now, if you'll let me go I'll forget this ever happened."

I gave him a smile. One that I had used to calm down hysterical men and women, and smile that without words promised that everything would be alright. "No." Then I put the rest of the magazine into his gut.

He didn't die, not right away anyways. Gut shots tended to be rather slow painful deaths. Fortunately for the man he wouldn't have to worry about that. What he did have worry about was the fire burning him from the inside out.

I ignored the screaming, focusing on more important matters. Like where in the world was in going to find a map?

…

"You know those things will kill you."

The surprised sentry barely had time to drop his lho-stick and reach for his weapon before I slammed my combat knife into the base of his skull. As his body jerked and twitched, I carefully set the fresh corpse on the roof of his watch point and put my knife back into my boot's hidden sheath.

Finding the old factory hadn't been all that hard, I just kept asking around until someone actually answered my question rather than give me dirty looks and sneers. It was easy to notice the lookouts stationed on the nearby rooftops and was almost just as easy to put a blade between their ribs. This one being the last.

Now having time examine them without the risk of being discovered, I could see some similarities with the raiders of old. Thrown together armor that left much exposed, worn and near inoperable equipment and stupidly dyed hair. This one having a bright red mohawk. His rifle on the other hand was in fairly good condition as I picked it up and could tell it was much lighter than it should have been. Feeling the material underneath my fingers, I briefly thought it was made of plastic before tapping it and getting the ring of steel.

"Huh, neat. Better save this for later." I said as it disappeared with a green light.

Up on the rooftop across the street I was all but invisible with my dark clothes and the recently equipped shadowed combat armor. While not the best in terms of protection or stealth, it provided a good balance between the two.

With the press of a button on my pipboy, I felt the familiar weight of the Ratslayer materialize in my hands. The Ratslayer may have been a low caliber bolt action rifle, but it made up for it with a lighter build, night vision scope and built-in suppressor. It was perfect for picking off lightly armored targets from a distance without anyone noticing.

I settled the crosshairs on the head of some scantily clad ganger girl, I took in a breath and pulled the trigger. With a soft 'pft' sound, the ganger dropped and before here partner could raise the alarm I put one in him too. Another guard dropped as he rounded the corner and the last guard died with a splat as his body slid off the four stores tall warehouse roof.

Satisfied that all the guards were dead I leapt from my perch and landed with a forward roll and back onto my feet. Jogging over I dismissed the Ratslayer and brought out the Xuanlong assault rifle, though it was the Xuanlong in name only as all the parts had needed replacing over the years. Readying myself, I entered as quietly as I could be.

The warehouse was a very spacious building, or at least it would have been had it not been packed with rusted old cars and a few shipping crates. It seemed to be arranged in a way that turned the place into a small labyrinth. I slowed down as I heard a couple of voices from around the corner.

"I'm telling you Max, I swear I heard something outside. It was kind of meaty sounding. I swearing somethings going on." A nervous sounding voice said.

"Shut it Saul. There ain't nothing going on but business. If there was something, the guards would have called it in or at least shot the problem till it stopped being a problem. Now do you hear any gunshots?" The other much deeper voice asked.

"No?"

"Right, then there's no problem. Now come on we need to find the boss. She wants us with her we she deals with them Red Boys. Creepy bastards are already in the conference room."

I was about to turn the corner and fill the men with holes, but what Max had said caught my attention. If I started shooting now, these Red Boys might cut and run. But if I tailed these two I just might get a few more gangers in one go.

Lowering my barrel, I glanced around the shipping crates on saw the two men's retreating backs. Silent as a ghost, I followed behind while slung the Chinese rifle over my shoulder and drew the Deliverer. The weapon was now equipped with caseless rounds and a vibration dampening barrel that made the quiet pistol near silent.

Never being more than ten steps behind, I checked my corners incase the two men ran into a wandering ganger. There were no problems until coming upon a T-intersection as the two men turned right and just as I was about to follow, another man came from the left. He was average looking with a shaved head, dirty green shirt and pants, armored kneepads and pauldrons to protect him. To bad for him that they did nothing to top me from putting two rounds into his chest and one just underneath his nose. He was about to collapse to the ground with a loud thud before I caught him by the collar of his shirt. Dragging him along, I stuffed him into the first dark corner I could find. Thankfully it didn't take too long and was able to catch up to tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumb quickly.

With a few more turns I watched them climbed a set of stairs leading to what looked like was the top floor. Waiting a few moments, I let them climbed the stairs as no to see me before climbing after them. The top of the stairs lead to a door that assumed lead to this conference room Max mentioned. Putting away he suppressed pistol and rearmed with the Xuanlong, I decided that if someone spotted me here I would have to go loud. Though that didn't mean stealth was out the window just yet. Scrolling through my pipboy, I had a Stealth Boy materialize on my right wrist and with a small hum, light bent around me leaving me invisible to the untrained eye. Back in the day I would have used them sparingly as they were hard to come by and had a limited charge but reverse engineer my old Chinese stealth suit had allowed me to extend the battery life to last centuries without needing a recharge, though the device itself was still vulnerable and the stealth field deactivated if one to many object disrupted the modulating field such as bullets or lasers.

Now hidden in plain sight, I opened the door a crack to see if anyone was nearby the door. Finding no one, I slipped inside inching along the wall until I got to the left hand corner where I had a clear view of everything.

The conference room really wasn't one at all. If I had to guess it had actually been the work foreman's office, an actual conference room and a spare parts room turned into one big room by knocking the walls down. There were scattered prices of garbage on the floor, several sets of couches, a large television set, a couple dozen steel framed bunk beds on the opposite corner and a large fancy table in the center. Probably left over from the original conference room. What held my attention however was the some forty to fifty men gathered around the table.

About half were dressed like the gangers I had already seen with a much better armored women with bright green hair sitting at the table. They stood closest to me while the other half stood on the other side of the table. Now I had seen plenty of disheveled looking raiders in my time but these guys easily made the top ten. What skin could be seen was littered with both old and new scars with clothes that were torn, ripped, shredded and covered in what could either be red clay or dried blood. Fitting the name Red Boys, they each had on some sort red article of clothing store such as a jacket, shirt bandanna or ugly red tattoos. Then was their chosen of weapons. From what I had seen and read was the melee combat had made a huge comeback these past few millennium but this idiots had seeming abandoned all idea of ranged fighting. I saw several blades made of what looked like scrap metal, a few cleavers, some swords, kitchen knifes and what looked like a pitchfork that had been set on fire. Even their very large leader sitting at the table wearing nothing but some red pants and combat boots had what looked like a mix between a red chainsaw and sword strapped to his waist. Granted I planned on looting that from his corpse but I learned melee combat out of necessity not preference.

The Red Boss wasn't looking to composed. His muscle were tense and he looked ready to explode into action at a moments notice. His foot was shaking and his hand twitched towards that sword of his every now and then.

"Can we get on with this meeting now? We are all here and I grow tired of this waiting." Red Boss said angrily.

"In but a moment. We are waiting for my hired help to arrive before beginning negotiations." The Gang Boss said in a much more sultry sounding voice than I was expecting. "As much as I trust your word, I have heard of your reputation when you do not get what you want." She said clicking her tongue in a chastising manner.

Hired help. In this kind of situation that meant hired guns. Mercenaries. Shit. I don't think they would miss the bodies on the way in.

"There is no need for negotiations! In but a few hours you will tell your men to kill the city officials and raid the armory then this city will be yours. Even now my comrades take Aven as we speak. The PDF are being slaughtered by the dozen while the Planetary Governor is stopping all distress calls from leaving the system. He is on our side and at the end of the day when we control this planet you can either stand alongside us or die groveling at our feet!" The large man said with just as much anger as before.

I really didn't like what I was hearing. This world was mostly just barren rock with mountains and scattered forests. There were only about sixteen cities in all they were all positioned along the planet's equator. If I was remembering correctly then Aven was both the largest city and home to the ruling government. If it was under siege right now that either meant there was a revolution going on or more likely a invasion of planetary proportion. As much as I despised what I had seen about the Imperium, the other factions were either just as bad if not much MUCH worse. And now that I really looked at the Red Boys it started to click that these men matched the description of followers of a certain blood obsessed God.

Raising my rifle I was just about to open fire on my unsuspecting targets when the door burst open and in marched a group of well armed and armored men wearing that dirty green armor I had seen on guardsmen at the bar. These men however scratched out and removed any sign of the two headed eagle and any regimental markings. The mercenaries I presume.

The were lead by a rather intimidating man (I think) with a helmet and metal mask with orange lenses covering his face and what looked like a set of thicker full body armor, unlike the thinner ones that only covered the torso and shoulders that most guardsmen seemed to wear.

"Ah, hello Captain. I glad you finally made-"

"I'm sorry ma'am," The captain said with a voice that told me he was a regular smoker. "but the perimeter has been breached. We found all the external guards dead from gunshots too the head and all sentries killed either by a snapped spine or a blade to the skull. We also found another body hidden in a corner down stairs."

Gang Boss seemed speechless at first before she closed her jaw, anger blossomed on her face and turned back to Red Boss who seemed to enjoy hearing about the casualties.

"You son of a whore! You treacherous bastard you kill my men and think I'll work with you! You think you can try to get rid of me if I said no!? I hang you by you're entrails for this!" She said standing up while her men and the mercenaries readied their weapons and took aim. The cultists did like wise, though Red Boss seemed even more angry than before with no trace of vicious amusement.

"You dare to think I would have tainted myself with that kind of cowardice! If I wanted you and your men dead I would have done it already while and made you watch as I ripped out your guts with my bare hands!"

"Still here."

It was barley a whisper but it seemed it had caught everyone's attention as we all turned to look at a man step out of the group of mercs. He was scrawny, looked malnourished and couldn't hold still as he seemed to constantly shake and twitch his head to the side every now and then. His armor didn't fit him well and there wasn't a weapon on him. Yet for as feeble as he appeared, there was something off about him.

"Still here. Old thing come. Old thing kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill. Thing become ghost and kill. Ghost thing watches and waits, listening to plots and plans. Ghost thing here. Still here, here, herehereherehere." As he turned it dawned on me just what was wrong with the man. He was a psyker. Now I had dealt with psyker before and most of their powers had seemed more along the lines with telepathy, mind consoling animals or even seeing into the future. Now it seems that after several millennia theirs powers had expanded greatly, at the cost of most of their sanity since they seemed to rely on that hellish warp energy I read about. I'm not sure if the psykers of my time actually had had access to the warp at the time and had some form of immunity or it had just taken centuries for the warp energies to find them. Either way it didn't really matter. The only thing that mattered was that the skinny psyker was turning towards my corner and looking right into my still invisible eyes.

"There."

Uh oh.

Everyone was looking my way and as good as a Stealth Boy was I had fifty plus men and women looking at me. They would notice the slight distortion in the air and open fire. Now I was a tough man, I'm not bragging just simply telling the truuth. I had been shot, stabbed, skewered, blown up, set on fire, poisoned, had to surgically reattach limbs, my body could heal most wounds within the day, survive off of sunlight, my top layer of skin was as hard as tree bark, the bottom like iron and my bones were covered by adimantium. I'm pretty sure I could take a hit from a tank and survive, but that doesn't mean I wanted to press my luck. Tucking my rifle under my arm I deactivated the stealth field with my free hand resting on my hip, right next to the grenades.

Everyone tensed as they saw me appear out of nowhere. Every finger just waiting to pull their triggers.

"Wait a minute, this isn't the bathroom." I said with the most confused sounding voice I could manage. "Hey can one of you fellas point me to the toilets? Had some bad fish earlier and nature calls if you know what I mean."

I was somewhat surprised when flaming pitchfork guy relaxed and motioned towards a set of drapes blocking off one of the corners.

"Oh, thank you. Now if you'll just excuse me…" I took a step forward only to find a roaring chainsaw a foot from my face with a very excited looking Red Boss grinning at me.

"Oh you, your going to die screaming." His grin widening.

"Alright but if you allow me to just say one thing?" He seemed to think it over a moment before nodding. "Okay...catch!"

With a flick of the wrist I sent a now armed glowing green grenade flying into the middle of the crowd. I expected a lot of things, like some confused looks and people scrambling to get away. Not for pitchfork guy to actually catch the thing.

As the grenade went off in a flash of bright green plasma, I threw my self backwards and just as I wanted right through the window overlooking the work floor. I dropped several floors onto a shipping crates and while the impact was hard, it was annoying at best even as my head bounced off the top. Shouldering my rifle I aimed upwards and waited for the first unlucky criminal to stick their head out. It was only a few seconds and three gangers and a merc received several rounds through their heads for their efforts.

Getting to my feet I had just a moment to toss another grenade through the windows when a laser struck me in the chest plate and automatic fire hit the metal to my left.

The laser melted the top layer of my armor in an almost perfect circle, but save for a slightly warmer chest I was not hurt. Still, I dropped back down into the junk labyrinth as I heard another plasma based explosion and the screams of pain. Turning a corner, I ducked back into cover as a red bolt just barley missed my face. Leaning out behind the rusted car frame I fired a burst at knee height and was rewarded with a man in green armor falling to the floor with a scream as two machete wielding cultists ran over him and towards me. Aiming at the unprotected center mass I unloaded on him. I expected him to drop with the first few rounds but was surprised you see that it took the entire magazine for him to die. Honestly it made sense that a worshipper of a bloodthirsty war god would be hardier than your average human. Unfortunately that left the second one to close the distance unimpeded.

"Blood for the blood god!" He screamed as he raised his weapon high. I was moving before he brought it down. Stepping backwards I spun and sent a low sweeping kick that knocked his feet out from under him. As his back hit the floor I was over him and he barely had time to blink as I slammed my boot onto his face with a meaty thunk. Then just to be safe I did it again and instead got a loud crack.

Satisfied that he was down for good, I removed the empty magazine slapped a new one in and continued on. Another cultists rounded the corner up ahead and rather than dealing with aiming for the chest I put a three round burst through his skull and his head all but exploded. It went like that for a few minutes with me rounding a corner to find one or two gangers or cultists and putting them down with a well controlled burst.

Then things got quiet, unnaturally quiet. I went down several more labyrinthine and found no one around, though I could still hear their footsteps echoing in the large room but even those were starting to fade away. The first hint that something was wrong was when I came to a ninety degree corner where I vaguely remembered there should have been a T-intersection. Following the only available path I came to an abrupt stop when I came to a wall of car bodies that looked like had just been moved into place. I could almost feel the weapon barrels being aimed at my back.

With a sigh I turned around to see five mercenaries plus their Captain aiming those laser rifles at me, two gangers wielding a pistol and shotgun with another more focused on carrying his half burnt and only semi conscious leader. Which left the ten red themed cultists, with their shirtless leader standing in front of them. Apparently they had managed to predict where I would wind up, block my path and hide behind a false wall.

"Ha! I come here trying to get these worthless scum to rise up against their Imperial masters, yet instead I find a warrior of merit. How many of my fellows have you sent to Khorn tonight? Either way it no longer matters. I shall take your skull myself!"

With a roar from both him and his weapon, the cultist leader charged at me faster than I expected. He was fairly close already and at that speed I was only able to get a few shots off before dodging to the right to avoid the swords teeth. He was more skilled than his subordinates as he spun on his heel while keeping his momentum and attempted to saw me in half. Always attacking and never letting up, he almost cut me a few times but unfortunately for him I had tangled with far faster and deadlier opponents than him.

After making another attempt to eviscerated me, I had had enough of dodging and swung a fist into his face. He looked like the kind of nan that could easily take a punch but a punch from me was another thing. I was a fit man and had plenty of lean muscle with those same muscles being enhanced by mutations and cybernetics that helped my punch far above my weight class. Then with metal covered bones making up my fist and being thrown by that augmented strength it made a punch from me was the equivalent to being hit by a sledgehammer.

There was audible cracking sound and the man's jaw became unrecognizable as blood and teeth fell to the ground. Not waiting to see if that was enough to stop the fight I grabbed the wrist holding the roaring weapon, held it in place and with my right arm still cradling the Xuanlong, I jammed the tip of the barrel into his gut and open fired.

As the bullets tore apart his body is could still feel the man try to fight on as he attempted to wrench his wrist from my vise like grip. As the rifle clicked empty, I knew I wouldn't be able to reload in time before our audience decided to just shoot me before I turn my attention to them. Thankfully I now had a perfectly usable right in front of me. Tearing the blade from the cultists weakening grip, I spun on my heel and with a swing and mechanical roar, the metal teeth chewed through the man's large muscly neck and relived him of his head.

It was like that for a minute with me a now bloody mess standing over the fresh corpse of their leader and the assorted criminals, mercs and cultists staring at me. It was all silent save for the now low rumble of my weapon and my deep calming breaths.

That silence was promptly shattered by the cries of "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" As the remaining cultists charged.

All ten of them came at me screaming with weapons raised while the mercenaries starting put as much weapons fire down range as possible without care as two cultists fell to 'friendly' fire.

It was right at that moment that I closed my eyes, and when I opened them the world had slowed to a crawl.

My pipboy was a marvelous machine, being able to atomize items as digital storage and reassembling them in my hands, built in clock, radio, Geiger counter and VATS. The Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System allowed the devise to tap into the wearers nervous system and allowed them to fire a weapon with all the accuracy of a super computer while their mind's thinking processing exponentially increased. Then later came the Implant GRX that could apply a dose of Turbo directly into a person's system, boosting their body's reaction and movements speeds to superhuman levels while the world slowed around them. They were wonderful technology on their own, but put them together and give me three centuries to improve upon their design and you got something revolutionary. Now the effects could last for a week strait without any permanent damage to one's muscles. Still as amazing as it was, it was still a machine that could malfunction or break and didn't want to rely on it too much so I only broke it out when I needed an advantage. Like right now.

The eight remaining cultists were a few meters away and at this speed I could see the spittle fly from their mouths as they bellowed their war cries. Walking over to the first, his eyes were just able to follow me aside dragged the sharp chainsword's teeth across his neck. Turning to the second closest enemy I sent a quick and powerful jab with my free hand at her esophagus. The third and forth were close enough to each other that it only took one swipe of the blade to spill both of their innards. The fish man tried to come to as stop as he registered little ol' Albert cut down his buddies in what must have been a real world second. Grabbing his collar I threw rather than dragged his body in front of the mercenaries line of sight as the took aim at me. I saw several of the green armored men pull their triggers and beam of red light struck number five in the back instead of me.

Six, seven and eight were still coming but though didn't look quite as confident as they had been. To bad for them they wouldn't live to regret their decisions. Sprinting towards the three men I leapt forwards and with my body in the air I was free to put all my weight into a single punch. Cultist number six barely had enough time to widen his eyes as his face caved in with my fist. The seventh went down when I aimed kick between his legs and he crumpled as I felt two little somethings pop.

What can I say? I'm a pragmatist.

The last cultist tried to take a swing but a quick headbutt to the bridge of his nose followed by jamming the roaring chainsword into his ribcage put an end to that.

I turned to face the remaining threats and saw the surviving ganger members finally listen to their survival instincts, turned tail and ran. Half carrying and half dragging their dying boss with them. I decided to ignore them in favor of focusing on the more immediate threat, the six mercs currently getting a bead on me. Putting the cultist still impaled on my sword in front of me, I ducked as his body started to cook from the laser fire but a brighter laser managed to fire right through the corpse and hit the armor cover my lower abdomen. I felt the heat this time as I knew the skin underneath had just gained first or even second degree burns. A quick glance from my macabre cover showed that the more powerful laser came from the Captain's weapon, a slightly larger laser rifle hooked up to some sort of power pack on his back. Not wanting to be hit again, took a hold of my 'cover' and spun. As I completed the three sixty, I let go and the former cultist flew off my sword and into the group of ex-soldiers. Five of them were knocked down to the floor either by the flying body or trying to dodge it. Unfortunately the Captain stepped out of the way and put another beam into my chest. This time I KNEW it was second degree burns and a glance down showed that my combat armor was near useless as the chest piece looked half melted.

Not wanting to take another hit, I ran as fast as I could towards the mercenary leader in a serpentine manner as several more laser beams got uncomfortably close. Thankfully I was upon him in a few moments and took a horizontal swing at him with my new toy. The man had good instincts and reaction time, I'll give him that. As the buzzing teeth came towards him, he raised his armored forearm and though he stumbled a bit he took the hit like a champ. The chainsword's teeth may have been sharp but they couldn't cut through the tough armor. To bad for the mercenary I had something that could.

While keeping the pressure on the sword, I bent down, drew my combat knife and slammed it into the center of his chest piece. Now a normal knife would never have been sharp enough to slice through that armor, but one made of Saturnite could. The man made alloy developed by the Think Tank could absorb and maintain heat like nothing else and when sharpened there were very few things it couldn't cut. When I first rediscovered the recipe for the alloy, I had kept it a closely guarded secret, only making it for special occasions. Knives, saw blades, flechette rounds and artillery shells all were viable options but I made sure to never make enough for my enemies to have the possibility of reverse engineering the alloy.

As the knife sank into the flesh underneath, I heard the Captain release a small scream of pain as he reflexively put both hands on the knife handle in an attempt to follow his instincts. I.e. get the sharp stabby thing out of my squishy body.

In his panic over getting stabbed in the chest (wimp, I've been stabbed thousands of times,) he let go of that very interesting looking weapon of his at I dangled from the cables connecting to the backpack. Rather than just let that wonderful piece of technology get damaged in his struggles, I so kindly decided to take care of it for him.

Grabbing the handle, I took careful aim at the mercenaries who were finally getting up or still prone and pulled the trigger. There was very little recoil when superheated gas escaped the barrel as the fully automatic lasers still struck the downed men. Flesh was burnt and then cauterized as the bright beams of fun landed through the men until they all stopped moving.

Satisfied that the Captain and I were the only ones left looked him strait in the visor and gave him a small smile as the world resumed it's normal pace. Dropping the gun, I grabbed the knife handle and was about to pull it out when the last mercenary grabbed my wrist with a weakening grip.

"You..bastard…" He reasped.

"Hey now, no need for name calling. You and your boys lost fair and square. And my parents were married when they had me just so you know."

"May have got me…but my boys will tear you apart." He was trying not to let his head droop and stay on his feet even though he was clearly fading. Probably a punctured lung.

Glancing back at the smoldering remains of his men, I gave the man a raised eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I got 'em."

He let out a chuckle that turned into a wet cough. "Reinforcements you moron…You think this was all we had?...Selena was meeting with the Red Boys so she hired us…or protection or at least…retribution. We call for backup…the moment we fount the bodies."

Just then, I heard the roar of engines shake the factory and barking of orders from outside.

"Hehe, too late now. You can't…escape." I could feel the grim smile behind his mask.

I smiled right back.

"Who said anything about escaping?" Tearing the knife out of his chest I slid the blade along his neck as his precious red liquid escaped his body. It only took a minute for him to stop thrashing. Satisfied I was alone, I got to one of the more fun parts of a fight. Looting.

Most of the cultists had nothing of with on them save a few coins but the mercenaries weapons and armor were mostly salvageable. The Captain's armor was still in good shape save for the small knife shaped hole in the chest. His rifle, along with his armor, the chainsword and any other equipment I found went into the pipboy storage. After retrieving the Xuanlong from where I dropped it I eventually found my way back at the entrance. Peer out the slightly open doors, I saw a small army waiting for me. At least a hundred men with several vehicles with mounted weapons and a small gunship hovering in the air. There was no way I could take all of them on as it was. Thankfully I always made sure to have a trick up my sleeve. Well, in pipboy anyway.

Scrolling through my pipboy I went the apparel section and I smiled as found what I wanted.

With a bigger flash of light than the previous times and with a heavy thud it appeared. Standing at seven feet and eight inches tall, the power armor stood like a Goliath amongst men. The T-100x was modeled after the old T-60 that the Brotherhood used to use, though the shoulder pauldrons were more rounded like the X-01, the headlamp and hoses were removed and the harder edges smoothed out. It also had a locking armored panel on the back, covering the armor release and the TX-28 microfusion pack housed within. The usual dark eyepiece was changed out for a light green one that was both tougher and had several options for vision. What really stood out about it was just how shiny the metal was, seeming like glittering silver with not a mark on it.

Pulling up the locking plate, I gave the release valve a twist and the back of the armor split open. I took off my duster and atomizing it before hopping in, no need to get it caught in the armor. The frame closed around me with a snug but comfortable tightness as I slipped my hands into the controls in the arms. There was a brief moment of darkness before he HUD came on line showing the suits integrity was at 100% while health monitor said I had burns on my chest but were slowly healing. Activating the recon sensors, the screen was lit up with red human shaped figures on the other side of the wall and a large red mass in the air.

With a deep breath and quick prayer too…the universe I guess, I stepped out with thundering footsteps.

I couldn't see to well from this far away, but I swear I saw all their jaws drop and a few hand movements that somewhat looked like the sign of the cross.

"Holy shit it's a Space Marine. Everyone open fire!" someone shouted.

Then just like that the world turned red. Laser fire was everywhere, so much coming at me that I couldn't see a thing and yet there I stood. Honestly I couldn't even feel the heat that the laser must have been generating. Granted I felt the grenades and what I'm guessing were anti-tank missiles. While I was lying on the ground, I swear my innards were about to be liquefied as the impacts traveled through my armor and into me. It was only the mix of reinforced organs and the armor's medical pump.

Then just as suddenly as the weapons fire began, it ended. Managing to get to my feet, even if somewhat shakily. Now with the blinding light gone I could now see my surroundings, somewhat. The dust in the air made it more difficult than it needed to be but I could easily tell that I was now in a fairly deep crater and that the hostile were to my left, having been turned around during the barrage.

Glancing at the armor monitoring systems, I gave a victorious grin as the armor was still in perfect condition. Hell there probably wasn't even a scratch to be found. I really shouldn't be surprised though as T-100x or as the schematics had dubbed it, the Athena power armor was made completely out of adimantium. I had discovered the schematics in an old Enclave base out in the area that used to be Colorado. Designed by the Enclave to be the best armor to ever exist, but unfortunately for them it called for the extremely rare adimantium alloy, the same material I had covering my bones.

The bone idea had come to me during a drunken escapade (back when I could get drunk) and I had just read an old comic about some hero having a steel skeleton. It all worked out in the end though. Too bad the small amount I had stumbled across was all that was ever actually made. Thankfully the Think Tank had recipe just lying around, the only problem being the lack of the required materials. The three main components being titanium, saturnite, and something called ultracite. It wasn't until my empire had reached the Appalachian wasteland that I found the last one. Not a lot of records survived in that area seeing as how the region seemed to have been repeatedly been nuked to oblivion some twenty five years after the Great War. One recorded nuking had simply been because of a giant bat monster and another because some guy wanted revenge for his neighbor locking him in a homemade name with a Deathclaw. Honestly, were they that big of assholes? Still I had found the ultracite and now I could make my own adimantium.

Striding out of the smoke with an echoing thud with ever foot fall, I must have made quite the sight to the men. A silver giant that taken thirst best shot and found it wanting. I stood there for a few moments just letting the fear set in for a minute before I summoned a minigun to my hands. I spoke two words as the barrels started to spin and hade sure the volume on my speaker was as high as it could go.

"My turn."

The CZ57 Avenger minigun was fast, accurate and lighter than its other variants. It did however lack in stopping power as it fired the small 5mm and a reduced ammo capacity. The latter problem was solved with some good old fashioned tinkering by putting the magazine for the ammo belt underneath the weapon rather than using the backpack method. The former problem couldn't be solved without using another type of ammunition which would require a major redesign. Then one night I had had an epiphany. Use the Zhu-Rong technology only with something far more…volatile.

So as the first few armor piercing rounds left the barrels, an outside observer would have seen a streak of bright blue fly through the air and strike an armored man in the chest. Rather than watching him stumble back from the impact, get knocked down or even fall dead, hey would have seen him get blown to little meaty chunks as he was at ground zero for what looked like a blue, man sized nuclear blast.

The mercenaries started firing again once they saw what was being done to their fellows but by then it was too late. Sweeping my weapon along the firing line, men were reduce to what could best be compared to chunky salsa. Whatever cover that had was torn apart as even their armored cars were turned into scrap metal and we're turned into massive fireballs as their engines were ruptured and fuel exploded. The gunship hovering overhead rained down laser fire and two door gunners fire what looked like some sort of bullet-grenade hybrid at me with one even glancing my shoulder that threw off my aim for a second. Focusing on the biggest threat of me, I put a few rounds into its left wing that put holes in it bit enough for a man to crawl through. Another couple rounds were put through the pilot's windows and with a violent jerk the gunship came crashing down. Right on top of a few dozen mercenaries.

Turning my attention to last few men, whatever hope they had of at killing me had literally gone up in smoke. It seems that my green gaze focusing on the remaining dozen men was the last straw. Some lowered their weapons and booked it as fast as they could while others had much less dignity and dropped their guns with a scream as they ran like the devil himself was breathing down their necks. I snickered as a few of them seemed like they would need to find some new pants.

Unbelievably, two men were still firing at me. One nailed me dead center in the chest to no effect. I had once heard that insanity could be described as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If that were true then these guys were nuts. When the lasers finally stopped I thought they had learned their lesson, only to be proven wrong as they…fixed bayonets.

From there I mentally changed the state of mind from crazy to just plain suicidal. The last bullet in my weapon blew apart the one on the left which left the one on the right to close the distance. Only to have his head explode upon impact with a metal fist.

Glancing around at the carnage looking for any signs of another attack, I was satisfied that the fighting was over. Fort now. Though I didn't like the sound of the approaching sirens from the distance. The last thing I needed was to be thrown in jail on trumped up charges. Like vandalism. I did NOT want that on my record. Oh wait, I don't even gave a record. Shit. That was probably worse. Oh and the murders. Although most of them were self defense. Most of them.

Either way there was still some cultist uprising to deal with and I didn't have time to hash it out with the local authorities.

So with that I used my armor's HUD to lock onto the hidden frequency that only my pipboy boy was designed to pick up. With a tingling feeling and a flash, I was somewhere else.

…

As the tingling sensation quickly faded, I smiled when I recognize the whitish silver of the bridge on board the Zeta. Though their had been some personal touches added over three centuries. The bare metal floor was covered by a lush red carpet, a few small red crystal chandeliers and throne in place of the captain's chair was a throne. Well Veronica called it a chair, I preferred the term authority seat. I had finally found a purpose for those small green crystals the Zetan's had lying around. They were more transparent metal than crystal and had forged them into a custom fitted throne currently hovering off the ground. That came from small eyebot hover technology hidden in the seat. It was comfortable to sit in, durable, intimidating and best of all, it swiveled.

Ignoring all that I jogged over to the holographic display just as a light blue little girl suddenly appeared in the air above it. She was wearing one of those old astronaut jumpsuits frequently seen in those old prewar Comcast books and she snapped off a quick but sloppy salute.

"Captain on deck! Welcome back sir, how was your night?" She gave me bright smile before 'hopping' out of the air and landing on the floor without a sound.

"You know it wasn't too bad. Failed to get drunk, got mugged, took down a gang and slaughtered a small army."

"Sooo the usual?"

"Pretty much." I gave a shrug, or as close to one as I could while in power armor. "Hey could you bring us around so we're right over Aven? There's something I need to take care of."

"Aye aye Captain!" She gave another salute. The view outside the large windows changed as the Zeta sped off to the right and after a few minutes I was looking down on Aven, or what was left of it. The city was situated on its own little mountain island the size of the East Coast in the massive sea of stone. Even from up here in could see the fires as the innocents down there were slaughtered in the name of a dark god. It was disgusting to see such needless death and pretty soon they would move on to the rest of the planet.

I delicately adjusted the targeting coordinates into the weapons systems. No need to rush the shot and possibly miss, even as unlikely as that was.

"Hey ah Cap?"

"Yes Sally?"

The blue girl waved her hand and a flat plane of light appeared in the air, showing the image of a horribly scarred and bald man smilingly, showing off his teeth that had been filed to points.

"This is being broadcast to the entire world from down there." She said pointing at the burnings city.

"People of V45-839, I bring good tidings from my masters. For you shall all give you lives to the glory of the ruinous powers. Even now Aven falls and the blood flows. Join us, renounce your corpse god and you shall be welcomed with open arms. All that you want can be yours! Merely rise up and take it!" The man was screaming now.

Blah, blah, blah I'm an evil insane person and you should do what I say. I had heard it all before from much more charismatic people. Finished with the targeting, I diverted 25% power from the shields and ship wide cloaking to the main weapon. It would be a shame for the nan to be cut off mid rant by orbital annihilation.

It was then that I pushed the button labeled in faded permanent marker "DEATH RAY! DO. NOT. TOUCH."

With a loud 'vroom' that could be felt through the entire ship, a green beam shot out from the bottom of the ship and towards the burning city.

"…so stand with me! Fight for you true master! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! HAIL CHAO-" then there was nothing but static as the transmission cut out. Looking out the window I smirked as I saw the massive city was engulfed by a just as massive ball of fire. I could see the surrounding area that hadn't been blown up, shift and crack as what must have felt like an earthquake devastate even more land. As I watched the fire dissipate slightly, I watched as a wall of dirt and dust traveled outwards towards one of the closer smaller cities that hadn't been taken over by the blood crazed cultists. Another few minutes of silent watching revealed a crater several hundred miles long in diameter and who knew how deep.

Satisfied that there was no chance of the cultists attacking the other cities on the planet. Also considering what I had read on Khornite cultists I felt justified that there wouldn't have been any civilians left to save. Best to wipe them out in one stroke. Now to properly celebrate the victory with a drink.

"I wonder if that bar is still open?"

**…**

**Personally I've always been a fan of playing as brilliant characters. It's one thing to play as a big muscle bound brute and punching out vicious mutants trying to kill you. It's another to play as some like that but still be brilliant enough to debate and outsmart scientists. Albert is VERY smart and in this setting had access to the technology of the zeta, the Enclave, 's Lucky 38, the Sierra Madre, Big Mountain, Vault-Tec experiments, Nuka World, the Robot workshop and every piece of experimental technology found in the wasteland. The Institute doesn't count, they were dumb.**

** Now give him three hundred years. The end result would be amazing/terrifying. Add in the normal toughness of a fallout protagonist with all the potentially game breaking gear that could be made and you have yourself a one man army. Not to mention the most important aspect of any regimental character, looting your enemies equipment for yourself and finding epic loot. Now take the above technology and throw in some 40k gear to reverse engineer. And unlike most of the people of warhammer he has something exceedingly rare. Common sense. **

**Now here's something I want you to do for me. Give me suggestions. All that gear I described? No way am I imaginative enough to come up with it all so I'm looking for suggestions on what new gear Albert can use and I'll even take suggestions for Mods to use so long as it looks like it could fit right in the Fallout universe. **

**That's all I had to say so I hope you enjoyed the chapter and have a good day.**


	2. Ship of Wonders

**Look I know this took a while to come out but I have a good reason. Video games and work. That is all.**

**Now to address a few comments. Now this chapter is more about exposition than combat and know that the Zetan ship has FTL but does not use the warp. They were amoral creatures of science from beyond our stars and probably would never even consider the Realm of Souls to be a possibility let alone a valid means of intergalactic travel. Also I am disappointed no one caught that the Athena armor was from Fallout van buren.**

**Now to address some reviews.**

**coduss****\- I'll try to be better about my grammar in the future and what most fanfic writers think of Warhammer 40k gear as beyond compare in combat but they mostly forget that the first rule of warfare is to always adapt, yet they tend to make their characters more stagnant, preferring to keep to their old tech without evolving their fighting style or using their enemies weaknesses properly.**

**Anderson warrior****\- He had three hundred years before his cryo induced nap. Mr. Prime was been more than reverse engineered and I like the assaultron rifle idea. As for FEV, Albert has seen too many outcomes of that going horribly wrong for everyone to really research it in depths. Besides I like to think the emperor used it as a basis for the thunder warriors.**

**To the guest****\- Most RPG characters are swiss army knives and he may have all this tech, that doesn't mean he can win every fight with just that. As for the Tau, well he would see far too much of the Old World in them to support them. Plus I personally hate the space weebs. The story does have renegade in the title and that will become more and more apparent later on.**

**Da Warboss****\- There will be dakka. More and more dakka *whispers* Nuka storm bolter.**

**PTL****\- he would absolutely love to get his hands on all the gear he could and as for psyker well he doesn't actually have any good counters save for tremendous will power. I mean in the Fallout games you stumble in your several mind control experiments and are able to push through it all.**

**Other guest****\- No he doesn't know about fulgrim as he only stole his information from the Imperium and I do not believe anyone really knows about that.**

**Ranger Aznov****\- yeah I mean when the games end the characters are all one man armies with inhuman skill and powerful weaponry. Now combine them into one character and you have a huge badass and that's not mentioning just how smart and resourceful they can be.**

_Spaceship! Spaceship! Spaceship Spaceship spaceship! SPACESHIIIIP!_

_-Benny, Lego Movie_

**Chapter 2: Ship of Wonders**

"Yes! Burn! Grovel and scream as you die! For as your city falls to annihilation know it was us who did it! For this city is but the first! Next the world and then the solar system! THE GALAXY WILL BURN!"

"TOASTER SHUT UP!" I tossed an empty soda bottle at the omnicidal kitchen appliance as it gazed out the window at the destroyed city. It was a glancing blow but it knocked the murderous bread cooker on its front bread slot.

As it so happened the bar was not open. The rest of the planet's cities were in a state of emergency and every off duty Guardsmen and PDF trooper was called to arms after the cultist's video was aired. Then it was put into an even higher state of emergency when the conquered city was seemingly destroyed by an orbital strike. Now normally that would be a call for celebration at the defeat of their enemies but the fact that it wasn't an Imperial ship that did it put them on even more edge. It didn't help that the one image they got was grainy and indistinct save for the general shape of the Zeta. It was by chance that the locals managed to get the picture as they were scanning the local space for either a possible invading fleet or loyal ships willing to aid them against the cultists and that scanner briefly found my ship when the Zeta's cloaking devise's power was diverted to the Death Ray. The cloaking was back up and running immediately after the weapon fired but it was enough time to see the ship. Hell, if what some of the stuff I've recently heard on some the more restricted channels down on the planet, some had managed to see the connection between my ship and the "Silver Astartes" that had gone on some small rampage down in Alfons. Apparently the PDF had managed to capture several of the surviving mercenaries, the ones smart enough to run and had spilled their guts to the local authorities about me.

In the end it didn't matter if they connected my fight in the old factory to the destruction of the cultist controlled city. There would be too much attention around here for the foreseeable future. It would be best if I beat feet before an investigation could really be put into action.

"Sally, what's the closest inhabited world other than this one?" I asked the little blue hologram of a girl.

"Let's see that would be the planet Alpine a few systems over. A mostly feudal world but, we could be there in a day." She said without missing a beat.

"Alright then, take us away my First Mate ." I said eliciting a grin from her.

Outside the window, everything looked normal save for the large crater in the world's surface. Then like the television back in the wasteland, it started to get fuzzy as everything erupted into black and white static though you could still make out the shape of the planet. Then with the feeling of electricity running across your skin the outside world became clear again. Though that didn't mean everything looked like it was supposed to.

For starters, this systems sun was supposed to be a bright yellow, not a vibrant purple. The black void of space was now a dirty white with pinpricks of blackness where the stars should be. The world that had been made up of dark grey stone and a few scattered large lakes was now a light grey with the blue water now looking more like lava as it became a peculiar shade of orange.

It had been odd seeing it for the first time. It was just after I had taken down the Institute that it had happened. I had tracked down Shawn as a last request to a dying man outside Vault 111 and found that underground Utopia full of geniuses and morons that I realized that I had been holding myself back. They had created a scientific paradise because they had pushed the limits of what they could do and they had the entire Commonwealth at their disposal despite how small their organization really was. Sure their interests and methods were asinine but if I wanted to bring humanity back from the edge of extinction I needed to step up my game. For years I had ignored the Zeta and it's technology for fear that I might cause irreparable harm to either the ship or Earth. It was only by sheer luck that I didn't actually hit the planet when I accidentally fired the death ray during the escape attempt.

This strange reality overlaid with our own had been how the Zetan's achieved faster than light travel. Here black was white, up was down, and light was slow while solid objects could go faster than reality would ever let them. When I first saw it I was reminded of that old book by Lewis Carroll I read back in 101. Thus it had just seemed right to give the dimension a proper name, the Mirror.

As the world outside changed, I was glad see everything was still the same in here. Then without warning the world was gone and the blackness of the stars streaked by as we went faster than light towards our next destination.

Atomizing the Athena armor, I walked over and grabbed the toaster and attached him to my belt by his handle. Though I didn't particularly like the threats of heating coil based doom he threw my way.

"-not to mention the indignity of being defeated by a bottle. Just for that I'll melt it down and pour it down your throat! How's that for thirst quenching?!" It ranted.

"Fine then I guess you don't want to watch me tryout my new toys?" I asked.

"Oh. I'll stop threatening unholy vengeance upon you…for now."

I gave small grin. It was always adorable when the toaster threatened to kill me. It also seemed that he was the most ecstatic at finding out the state of the galaxy. I was almost concerned he would start worshiping that Khorne guy but thankfully his opinion on the dark god was less reverence and more like he were a rival as the toaster proclaimed that it would slaughter the blood God and take his rightful place on the skull throne. I wished the toaster luck with that seeing as he couldn't even move around without assistance.

Walking over to the teleportation matrix, I set the controls to the weapons lab. One flash of light later and I was in a large room with multiple tables holding several hundred weapons of differing makes and models. Ignoring the arsenal of weapons, I made my way towards the ship's firing range. I wasn't surprised to see that I wasn't alone.

"Beep-boop beep!" The round floating robot exclaimed before rushing over.

"Hey ED-E, I'm doing better. Thanks for asking. Now how's the lab coming along, I don't think it was too bad compared to the other labs." I asked. It seemed that over the course of my several thousand years trip, time had gotten to some of the more delicate technology I had lying around and certain machines either needed tuned up, taken apart and repaired or just plain scrapped and replacing. Thankfully all of my mechanical crew were spared that fate by being shut down and routine checkups over the centuries.

"Brrrm bap."

"Oh just the holographic targets huh? What about the matter transformer?"

"Beep."

"Oh good. That would have been a pain to fix it up. Can you get it warmed up for me? I'll be needing it in a few minutes."

I got an affirmative beep in reply before ED-E floated off. Pulling up my pipboy I selected the gang member's stolen rifle and activated the nearby terminal to start recording.

"Alright this is Albert Grimm testing recently pilfered weaponry from ganger members and mercenaries that appeared to be Imperial Guard deserters. Current weapon seems to be an automatic rifle," I pressed the button on the weapon's side and slid the magazine out. "that appears to fire something similar to the 7.62 millimeter round but appears to be caseless. Good for reducing weight and reducing materials needed but at the cost of being very delicate when compared to a standard round."

I slid a round out and set it to the side before reinserting the magazine. "The weapon seems to be made of some hybrid of metal and plastic that reduces the weapons weight without sacrificing the it's tensile strength. Now to test the weapon." I said as I pressed a button to my right.

There was a flash of light down range and a man appeared in the middle of room. At least it looked like a man. He was of average height and lighter skinned with dark brown eyes and seemed comfortable to be standing there without a thread of clothing to cover his body. What really tipped a person off that this was not an ordinary human were several things. First was that there was not a hair to be found on him, his eyes were all but dead to the world as they unflinchingly gazed forward, his breathing was too precise, too mechanical and his body unnaturally stiff. And his junk was missing, that was a big sign right there. Where a man would have his reproductive organs hanging, there was nothing but smooth skin like that of a doll.

Of course this was all on purpose. What better way to test the effectiveness of a weapon against humans than to test them on a human target? Of course using a real human was wrong for both practical and moral reasons. Instead I had used the old Gary clones as templates for my living test dummies, with a few tweaks. No need to waste biomaterial on giving them hair or genitalia when they were just going to get shot and they had such simple minds they could barley breath on their own let alone have anything that could pass for a coherent thought. I could walk up to one and stab it several times and it wouldn't even flinch as it didn't even register pain the same way an animal would, I should know as I did just that several times when testing the clones . Sometimes I wonder if I still carried a grudge against the Garys, but then I would shoot a Gary in the face and forget that train of thought. Of course I still needed data about what kind of damage a weapon could do so I adjusted their minds to register the damage and that data was retrieved by a brain scanner built into the ceiling. In a way the clones were more like plants, fleshy human shaped plants.

I flicked what was obviously the safety on the rifle off and pulled the trigger. "Firing." A burst of automatic fire sailed down range and punched several holes into the Gary, though a few rounds went wide as I adjusted for the recoil. Letting up on the gunfire, I glanced over at a nearby monitor to view the damage I received from the dummy's mind. Nothing really of note except that it did damage congruent with a normal 7.62 round.

"What? That's it? I thought the guns were super big now!" The toaster commented from my hip.

"Weapon seems similar in stopping power to the average rifle but the metallic plastic the rifle is made from presents a down side. While it does decrease the weight, it requires more effort to keep the weapon on target as there is less weight to keep the recoil minimized." I flicked the safety back on, removed the magazine, ejected the chambered round and set the weapon to the side.

Another flash of light and I was holding the still bloodied chainsaw-sword hybrid. "Next weapon is the melee weapon retrieved from a cultist of Khorne. It appears to be made of the same metallic plastic, as do the teeth. While extremely effective against an unarmored foe, it lacks the required cutting power to truly penetrate sturdier armor. A possible solution maybe to replace the teeth with ones made from saturnite."

"Well, hello there baby. What's a fine looking piece of iron doing here with a guy like him?" The toaster said and I could feel his heating coils start to warm up.

"Shut it. Anyways, I have already seen the effectiveness of the weapon and no further testing is required at this time, only after its disassembly and schematics documented." I was just about to put it down when it roared to life in my hand. I jerked the blade away from me as the roaring teeth almost seemed to lunge for my throat. I wrested with the weapon for a few seconds before it's roar settled down to an idle growl and held it as far from me as I could. Not trusting the weapon to not startup on its own again, I set it in a nearby and fairly deep metal box then activated the blue force field that functioned as the lid.

"Ha! She's a feisty one, I like her!" The appliance exclaimed.

"The chainsword also appears to have some form of malfunction as it activated without cause. Best to look at its design in detail upon disassembly." As I said that, I heard the roar come from the containment chest with just as much intensity. I raised an eyebrow at that. The fact it activated again when I mentioned disassembly caught my attention. Once was coincidence, but twice was suspicious. "Note to self, see if living weapons are considered possible now."

"Don't worry babe, I'll be waiting for ya once Al puts you back together!"

Putting the possibly living cultist weapon out of my mind I brought out several laser weapons I had collected from the dead mercenaries. After testing them out for an extended period and going through several dozen Garys I got a good read on the standard laser rifle of the forty first millennium. Over all it was all right. It's standard casing was again made of that metallic plastic and it's weight didn't throw off its aim thanks to the near nonexistent recoil as well as seeming to come in several models, but they performed mostly the same with a few minor differences. Some shot red lasers while some shot blue and they were all powered by an energy pack under the rifle that could be removed and replaced like a standard magazine. They were weaker than the standard laser rifle from my time but seemed to make up for it by being able to fire somewhere around one hundred and fifty shots, though it seemed to vary on the model. The lasers burned into flesh easily but also cauterized the wound, continuing to cook the flesh after the initial hit. Unfortunately it wasn't quite durable enough to handle the testing as the barrel needed replacing around the fifty shot mark. Thankfully it seemed to be an easy fix as I removed the barrel and replaced it with one from another laser rifle.

The Captain's weapon on the other hand performed well. While only firing around thirty lasers before seemingly needing to recharge, those thirty rounds had plenty of power to burn through a body and a into the back wall. It's backpack power source was heavy enough for a weaker man to struggle carrying it but not enough hinder a well trained soldier. It's durability was good as well, only needing time to cool down rather than have the barrel break.

Satisfied with my findings I packed up the weapons and just picked up the chest with the sword still locked up, and took them over to the main weapons lab. In the middle of one of the testing rooms was a block of steel sitting at waist height , about six feet long an three feet wide. It's surface was a grid of dark and light blues with a small keyboard jutting out the side. ED-E was off to the side, Using a small mechanical appendage to mess with an ornate looking machine made of wood and brass. On top of the machine was a circular screen that admitted a light blue holographic display showing several items ranging from food, drinks and cigarettes to medical supplies, ammunition and weapons. The base of the machine still had an old steel plate depicting a woman raising her arms to the side to pick up the hem of her dress. The initials S and M could be seen under her arms.

I set the chest down to the side and pulled out the ballistic rifle, setting it on the table top. Turning to ED-E I asked him if he was close to finishing up the small repairs when he gave a small chirp of agreement. There was a low hum as a few more lights on the machine came on. I put a few commands into the tables keyboard and a few blue force fields shot up from the edge of the table and extended to the ceiling, cordoning off the table's surface. The surface brightened considerably and just as it got close to blinding, there was a pop and the light dimmed. Now with the light gone the force fields lowered and the rifle was nowhere to be found.

Turning around, I walked over to where ED-E was floating. I gently nudged him to the side and scrolled through the holographic display looking for a very particular weapon. I grinned once I got to the weapons category and spied the image of a very familiar rifle. Selecting the gun, I pressed the confirm button and with another flash of light, the weapon appeared where the hologram had been, floating in place with the help of a few small magnetic fields. Grabbing it out of the air, I unloaded the magazine and saw it was full of bullets ready to be fired and further examining weapon, I saw that it was almost exactly like the rifle I had just dematerialized save that the small scratches that were now gone and the once dirty metal looked brand new. I kept my grin on my face as I turned back to the machine to see that the holographic display was back. I re-elected the rifle but rather than have the machine make another, I clicked a tab on the side and was rewarded with something important to any weapon. It's schematics.

The holo-vending machine was an absolute miracle of technology, even compared to the tech of the forty first millennium. It did more than just dispense items but actually fabricated them by manipulating matter. I had first seen them in a misguided treasure hunt in the old Sierra Madre hotel and casino during my time in the Mojave. It used the hotel chips as currency and I thought it had simply teleported items stored elsewhere but no, it actually broke down the material that the chips were made of, rearranged the matter until it was turned into the selected item. They were unfortunately limited in what they could produce as the hotel management did not want their guests getting their hands on anything destructive or particularly deadly such as a weapon, but I found a few holotapes lying around the hotel grounds that allowed access to the more exotic wares.

Once I had gained control of the Big Mountain research facilities, the very same place that invented the vending machines and it's technology, I had access to the master passcode. I had access to the machines programming and therefore had access to every schematic that had been put into the device. Everything from cigarettes to military armaments. I had detailed plans to all those items that gave the exact chemical makeup, the parts needed and how to put it together. Even if I found something that had not been programmed into the device like say a tesla cannon, all I needed to do was have the vending machine dematerialize it and the machine would automatically document every piece that made up the cannon and create it's own schematics for the device. On top of all that, it could break down any material from wood and stone to titanium or even adimantium. Anything could be recycled and therefore a from a pile of garbage could be spawned a fully working suit of power armor. A pile of rusty cans to weapons and ammunition. A broken down car to a nuclear fission generator. And once I had installed them all around Earth, it had changed the dead husks that were cities into thriving metropolises. It was too bad that none probably survived into this day and age.

I was very glad to see that the years of inactivity hadn't seemed to have damaged the device. I glanced back over towards the deconstruction table and saw that it seemed fine as well after its operation in millennia. The table had been an attempt to deconstruct certain objects that were simply too large for the vending machine to properly disassemble, like a suit of power armor. That's where the table came in, functioning like the standard holo-vending machine in dematerializing and creating schematics but not being able to create the objects.

Walking over towards the table I activated it again. I didn't stop with just the ballistic rifle as I moved on to all the laser weapons and the armor pieces. I was not surprised to see just how bare bones the regular rifles actually were but I suppose that meant that repairing the weapon was much easier while the more powerful rifle had a more complex design. The armor was all deconstructed without issue, though I was mildly surprised to see that they were made of new type of alloy, some kind of tough ceramic. The standard armor seemed to be a step above the old steel armor mercenaries in the wastelands used to be so fond of while the Captain's gear seemed similar in strength to medium grade combat armor that was standard for the American military. After that came the chainsword.

I managed to get it out of the containment chest without any issues as I set it on the table. Once the table lit up again and the sword started up on its own once more, though it could only roar in what I guessed was fury as it lay on its side. When the light appeared again, there was a noise accompanying it this time. A horrible scream. Not like a humans, but more like a mix between sparking wires and grinding gears. The scream increased in volume until it started to hurt my ears only to abruptly stop as the light disappeared.

I was fairly sure that swords were NOT supposed to scream like that.

Walking back towards the vending machine, I glanced at the weapons selection again and saw that the sword was there, but it's schematics were…odd. The designs showed it to be similar in design to a Ripper chain-knife but on a larger scale. It also seemed to run off of regular fuel as opposed to an energy cell, that would be something to fix at a later date. It also had strange markings on the inside on several mechanical parts. Some of them caught the eyes while other almost hurt to look at. I was just about to continue to try and figure out just what in the world the cultist had done to his weapon when I realized I had gotten the weapon from a CULTIST. I immediately looked away from the markings and started imputing commands to erase all designs and markings on the chainsword that did not serve any purpose in letting weapon function as intended.

I let out a sigh of relief when I glanced up at the design showing the chainsword with a rather spartan looking design that lacked any decoration or markings of any kind. All function and no form.

"Man, that could have been bad."

"What would have?" The toaster asked.

"Evil markings and runes that probably had some sort of corrupting power. But it all looks good for now so I guess I'll be reassemble you girlfriend later."

"Good! I desire to watch her in action. I mean watching a girl like that tearing someone in half would be fucking glorious!"

I rolled me eyes at that. With my work done, I decided to go checkup on the rest of the ship to see how the repairs were coming along. I made my way towards the nearest teleportation matrix and disappeared with a flash.

…

First stop was the engineering core. Not only was it easily accessible, it was also connected directly to the more important parts of the ship. It also functioned as the main relaxation area.

The engineering core was actually extremely low maintenance with only the occasional cleaning needed. The ships power core was extremely stable and produced very little heat so the room temperature was always at a very comfortable sixty five degrees Fahrenheit. Celsius could fuck off, it was meant for water not people.

The lower floors served no purpose save for some extra storage space so I had removed the few crates a long time ago and brought in several thousand pounds of nutrient rich soil to spread along the floor. With some small safe genetic tamper using old Vault 22 research, I was able to get grass and several other plants to grow with even a few trees sprouting up between the catwalks. They required less water, could survive off of the artificial sunlight lamps I had installed in the ceiling and best of all DIDN'T release toxic spores that were capable of infecting living creatures or turning them into plant zombies.

Several open areas near the entrances to the adjoining wings were taken up by a few tables that could easily be flipped to use as cover, several drink vending machines serving Nuka Cola, Sunset Sarsaparilla and Vim. A few snack machines were available as well, along with a noodle food stand being manned by old protectron, Takahashi. I had apparently managed to steal the robot from Diamond City one night while high and decided to keep the bot around as he was a phenomenal chef. I say apparently as I couldn't quite remember what actually happened that night as Hancock had gotten his necrotic hands on some homemade X-cell from the HalluciGen building. I had apparently also found the treasure of Jamaica Plain, insulted a robot until it exploded and killed a swan. It's probably best if I didn't remember.

Heading towards the old robot assembly, I encountered a small robot yelling at the jukebox while the jukebox ignored the robot and continued to sing the Blues to himself. I walked over and dropped the toaster off with the little robot and asked Muggy to stop bringing the omnicidal devise on to the bridge or anywhere near the death ray. Muggy said he was sorry and rolled away on his singular wheel while the toaster swore murderous vengeance. Again.

After saying hi and chatting with Jefferson for a bit about what music seemed to be popular now a-days, he was not happy to learn that choir music was all the rage, I entered the massive workshop. The darker orange lighting had always seemed an odd choice but it didn't bother me enough to warrant replacing all the light fixtures. As I neared the railings I saw a humanoid shape already there but it was oddly shaped with long blue limbs that ended in rusty three pronged claws. It must have sensed me coming since it turned around and looked me in the eyes with its own single glowing red gaze.

"Oh, greetings Sir. Did you have a pleasant evening?" The thing asked with the voice of a woman.

"It started off bad but it got better. Even managed to have some good old fashioned fun near the end. Thanks for asking Ada." I said patting her metallic shoulder.

"By fun you mean…?"

"Drinking, shooting and some good natured violence."

Ada let out an electronic sigh. "How bad were the damages?"

"Only a local gang and a little over a hundred mercenaries. Annnnddd maybe an entire hostile city."

The robot stared at me for a moment before sighing again. "Well at least it wasn't a continent this time."

"Hey, Australia had it coming!" I said feeling somewhat offended. It wasn't my fault that the entire place had been overrun by monsters that I whole heartedly believed were the devil's unwanted pets. The place had been an insane menagerie of dog sized spiders, crocodiles the size of a bus, as well as bipedal birds that had more in common with a Deathclaw than any bird I had seen! The damn things were almost as bad as the Cazadors or tunnelers. Still nowhere near as bad as the Cazaclaw though. Damn you Borous.

"Anyways forget about Australia. How has it been getting the assembly line back up and running. I may be able to take on a small army but I still wouldn't mind some robotic reinforcements."

"Of course sir. The robot assembly line is seventy-three percent operational and shall be at full capacity once we find the needed material." The robot said.

"Yeah don't worry about it. We'll pick up what we need tomorrow when we get to Alpine. Until then I guess we'll have to settle for what robots are currently operational."

"Yes we have thirty eyebot scouts, twenty Mister Gutsy's, fifteen Assaultrons of various models and ten Sentry bots all armed and armored. Every one synced to your relay grenades and ready to be summoned at a moments notice."

"That's great to hear Ada. Now keep up the good work, I'm going to check up on the rest of the ship."

"Very well. Have a good day Albert."

Saying goodbye I left the robot assembly, made my way through the engineering core and to the hangar bay.

The bay was very dark once upon a time but I had added plenty of light so that there was never a dark corner. The spacious room had a circle of tall pylons surrounding a deep hole that served as the ships docking port. There were several vehicles sitting around the hangar ranging from Zetan recon craft, upgraded vertibirds whose propellers had been replaced with nuclear powered jets engines, a Fury twin barreled heavy assault tank, several refurbished automobiles and my own favored vehicle, the Atom Racer. It was a beautiful piece of machinery, built from the frame of a Lone Wanderer motorcycle, I had it fixed up, replaced the steel with titanium, given it a new coat of red paint and replaced the wheels with magnetic repulsors. The repulsors were similar to the kind found in the eyebots hat kept the robots floating six feet in the air. Of course the Atom Racer was much heavier than an eyebot and required two repulsors to keep it two feet of the ground. The repulsors themselves were shaped like half circles, similar in size and diameter of the original tires. They were installed where the tires had sat with the flat parts of the half circles facing the ground. Now with my upgrades the Atom Racer could go over any terrain with ease while going several hundred miles per hour.

"How on earth did you manage to forget that it is MY duty to repair and polish the cars while it was YOUR job to recalibrate the Fury's targeting systems."

"Ha! You must be haywire. I distinctly recall Mr. Grimm giving ME the task of maintaining the automobiles. Now take those rags you call cleaning supplies and do your work."

"Scrap heap!"

"Screw licker!"

Of course the vehicles in the hangar required upkeep and maintenance, which was in had assigned the two most qualified robots to watch over the machines the job. Unfortunately what I could not have for seen was that the two Mister Handy's intense desire to show each other up. The two robots both had spherical bodies, three swiveling eyes, three arms equipped with a pincer, a buzz saw and a flame thrower with the whole robot being suspended in the air by a bottom mounted jet thruster.

"Hey none of that now boys. And I told Wadsworth to clean the cars and Codsworth to recalibrate the tank."

"Mr. Grimm!" They both said in their upbeat English accents. Honestly it would have been hard to distinguish one from the other save that Wadsworth was light grey while Codsworth was a darker grey.

"Alright you two no more fighting. You are both proud mechanical butlers, you should be coming together to make sure there isn't a rust spot to be found. Now, tell me how things are looking here."

The two bottles each had one of there eyes turn to look at the other, no doubt shooting each other the robotic version of a glare. The both looked back towards me before Wadsworth spoke up.

"All vehicles are accounted for and live up to your expectations."

"The tires are firm, the tanks are full and the weapons are full on ammo." Codsworth interrupted.

"And the teleportation relays are online." Both said at the same time before glaring at each other again.

"Well that's good to hear. Now knock it off with the bickering, it doesn't suit either of you. Now if you'll excuse me." I said before walking away and leaving them to their own devices. I was just about through the door when I could here the hushed insults start up again.

…

The cryo lab was freezing. Of course if it wasn't freezing then there was probably a critical systems failure. Still, seeing as the entire facility was made of Zetan steel, the already cold environment was made all the more uncomfortable and the perpetual fog only made it worse. Yet the woman in front of me hardly seemed to notice.

"Monsieur Grimm, what a pleasant surprise!" The lab coat wearing woman said before giving me a hug.

"Hi Curie." I said hugging her back before pulling away. The former Miss Nanny turned Synth still looked the same as I had last seen her before entering cryo sleep. She still had her short black hair and still somehow managed to keep her old Vault-Tec lab coat spotless.

"How are things going in your neck of the woods? Any issues with the specimens?" I asked motioning towards the wall of cryo chambers. Each and every one of them contain a creature or at least parts of every wasteland creature I could find. They ranged from the two feet long worker ants to the eight feet tall super mutants. I collected the creatures just in case I needed to reintroduce their species back into the wasteland, just in case they were in fact essential to the ecosystem. Of course I couldn't always have a living specimen as the cryo chambers were only so big and there was no way I could fit an alpha deathclaw or a fogcrawler into the much smaller containers. Instead I settled on collecting some of their body parts to insure that I always had access to their DNA if I ever needed to wip up a clone.

"Unfortunately we have lost specimens AA-24 and BD-32. The poor little beasties." Curie said with genuine sadness in her voice.

"A bloatfly and one of the nightstalkers. No huge loss but still it's always better to have an original over a clone. But other than that everything is alright?"

"Yes all is well. Although…" Curie's lips turned upwards into a small smile. "I was unfortunately required to release two specimens just before you arrived. I believe they should have caught your sent right about…now."

"Wait wha-?"

I heard the scraping of claws on metal before I felt the impact in my side that knocked me to the floor. If Curie hadn't hinted to Jesus this would happen my first instinct would have been to snap this creature's neck but thankfully I held myself back. As it was I did nothing as I felt my face suddenly get wet as what ever animal was on me said hello.

"Heya Rex! It's good to see you too buddy." I said as I started running my hands through his fur. I was able to push the cyber dog off of me long enough to get some breathing room only to have another dog's face shoved in mine.

"Hello to you too Roxie."

After about a minute of almost drowning in dog kisses I managed to get to my feet. I gave the two robo-shepards several head pats has my own greeting before Rex sat down and tilted his head at me.

"Awoo?"

"Yeah buddy were back but the galaxy is a whole lot different than when we left it. And not in a good way."

"Ruff!" Rex stood up with his tail wagging.

"Yeah, we'll get through it. Don't you worry about that. Now you two run along and stretch you legs, I bet you two are pretty stiff."

They both gave me some affirmative barks before running off.

"So anyways back on topic. If the cryo labs are all up to snuff, what about the biological labs?" I said turning back to Curie.

"Well all research was stopped before the journey back home but all the machines are still in perfect working order. We still have plenty of biological material for use with the Nuka-Gen replicator. I must say with all I have read about the new xeno races discovered since our accidental departure, I am most excited to study such intriguing species. The creatures known as Tyranids most of all, they seem the most fascinating." Curie said with a dreamy smile.

"Hold up, there will be no studying done without my say-so. The last thing we need is to bring some aliens on board only to have it get loose and cause havoc. Especially a tyranid if even half of what I read was true."

"Huh, very well." She said forlornly before going right back to smiling. "Is there anything else you required Monsieur Grimm?"

"No that's all. I just have one more thing to check up on before we get to Alpine."

…

The cargo bay had always been a dark place as it seemed that the former workers had not been deemed important enough by the Zetan's captain to warrant much consideration. I on the other hand saw fit to provide ample light for the entire bay even if it was mostly manned by Utility Protectrons. The bay itself was much more organized than when the zetan's had run it since they had mostly just collected junk. Now the bay and it's shelves were full of food, medicine and plenty of raw materials for use by the Holo-vending machines. I had installed several small teleporters around the bay that teleported the needed material to the holo-vender while it teleported in any material that had been deconstructed and stored as little cubes. Of course I also kept plenty of intact equipment around the bay such as a few small workbenches, portable generators, force field generators and all the Nuka Cola I could fit down here. Of course it all had to be counted, organized and sorted. Fortunately there was one man I knew who would do it with gusto.

"Forty two crates of Nuka Cola Quarts, fifty tons of Saturnite and two hundred thirty six pounds of the unknown ceramic material and eighty five pounds of newly dubbed plasteel. Plasteel? Really?" Danse asked as he shot me a look.

"Hey it feels like and is as light as plastic yet as strong as steel. Sue me." I responded to the former Brotherhood Of Steel paladin.

Danse had once upon a time been one of Elder Maxon's most loyal soldiers, but unfortunately it turned out that he was in fact one of the synths he wished to eradicate. It was always my belief that he had been a runaway synth who had been helped by the railroad and had his memory erased to escape his past. Of course finding out that he was the very thing he fought against had crushed him, but time and the support of his friends helped him come to terms with his situation. He had been as loyal a companion as Fawkes had been yet even the super mutant had left to find his own path in life while Danse remained. He looked the same as he had always been save for the fact he now wore an all black undersuit as opposed to the old Brotherhood Of Steel orange.

"Everything is accounted for with all of our standard needs met. Although we do seem to have run out of alcohol. Any suggestions on how that could have happened Captain?" Danse said shooting me a small glare.

"Uh…alcohol powered robots?" I sheepishly replied while scratching the back of my head and sighing in defeat. "Look it helped soften the blow when I realized just how fucked everything has gotten since we left. Speaking of how FUBAR everything is, how are holding up?"

Danse looked away from his data slate with a sigh. "I am…unsure. Though I'm glad that humanity is no longer on the edge of extinction I can't help but feel disappointed. We were supposed to lead the world into a golden age of prosperity. I can't help but wonder what might have been had we not been attacked by the damn Xenos."

"Yeah same here. Although we have to remember that as bad as it is, we still managed to drag the human race out of the stone age. At the rate that the planet was healing, we would have died out long before Earth became a garden world again. We saved the human race, now we just have to survive the rest of the galaxy now."

"Heh, true. Despite my feelings I am very interested in the military capabilities the Imperium can field. Especially those of the Adeptus Astartes."

I rolled my eyes. "What? You? Interested in the eight foot tall Space Marines wearing super power armor? Who would have thought?" I asked with a voice full of sarcasm.

"If you must know yes I am hoping to see their armor first hand. Who knows what improvements there have been while we were away."

"What, you don't like your own stuff any more? I put a lot of work into that thank you very much. Besides I'm more interested in these Imperial Guardsmen. Normal men and women equipped with cheap armor and barely adequate weapons managing to protect mankind for ten thousand years. If that's not badass I don't know what is. And if not them then definitely the Adepta Sororitas." I said with a smile.

"Aren't those the battle nuns?" Danse said quirking an eyebrow.

"The _super hot_ battle nuns."

Danse just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Your lecherous tendencies aside, I do find the prospect of meeting them interesting. The other species in the galaxy, less so."

"Yeah if half of what I read was true, we'll probably be shooting at them most of the time. Especially the Orks."

"Yes, more green skins." Danse said with a sneer. "At least the Super Mutants didn't know how to make space ships."

"I don't think the Orks do either. Apparently they just slap metal together in a vaguely ship like shape and just sort of…believe it's a ship." Honestly I wondered if whoever had written the files I had stolen from the Administratum ship had a few screws loose. However every file I found claimed how the Orks had the ability to make things work when they really shouldn't have simply through shared belief. It was honestly terrifying that they could warp reality with their complete idiocy.

"That's ridiculous. Honestly the idea of the Warp and these Chaos Gods sound like something from a fever dream. I doubt it's a mystical as those files claim it to be."

I frowned at Danse's reasoning. He assumed that such things as magic was simply superstition. That type of rationalization was wrong simply because it relied on reality to be sane. That rationalization would get him killed.

"Danse, back on Earth while we were wandering the old cities did you ever get the feeling that there was something that we weren't seeing?"

"Do you mean assassins or hidden snipers? I was always on the look out for such dangers."

I shook my head. "No no, like there was always something around the corner, something just on the edge of hearing or just beyond sight. The feeling that you weren't alone when you knew that there wasn't another living thing for miles around? Because I did. When I stumbled around the ruins of D.C. there were times when I swear I wasn't alone in a ruined building full of nothing but old skeletons. When I stood in the graveyard where I was supposed to die I could hear the whispers of _something_ on the wind. In the Sierra Madre I could see that what had once been people were now some undying abominations. And in the heart of the swamps of Point Lookout and the depths of Dunwitch Borers I found things that were simply _wrong_. And at the bottom of the Dunwitch Building I found an alter to some unknown dark god that consumed everything but me in nuclear fire.

In that moment when that damned book was burning in my hand in felt something. I felt something watching me, something dark and vast. Suddenly I didn't feel like the unstoppable Lone Wanderer, I felt like a radroach who managed to catch the eye of an Alpha Deathclaw. There was nothing I could do and despite everything I had been through I was powerless. And then the oddest thing happened. I felt that same vast power, well I felt like it was smiling at me. Like what I had just done…amused it. And just like that it was gone and I dread ever feeling that thing ever again.

So when you tell me that the Warp and these Chaos Gods are nothing but fantasy, well ill have to respectfully disagree."

Danse just stood there uncharacteristically quiet. His eyes wide and his mouth slightly opening and closing as if trying to find the right words to say.

"Y-you never me about that."

"I never told anyone and no one ever bothered asking." Running my hand through my hair is tried to think of something else to talk about to spare us from the awkwardness. Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything else to say that could save this conversation.

"Look I'm sorry that I got heavy there but just…just don't underestimate anything supernatural all right? You're my friend and I don't want you getting yourself killed over something you thought was just stupid hocus pocus."

"Don't worry Albert, I understand. I guess I'll attempt to keep an open mind to all the idea that 'magic' might be real. Now if there was anything else captain?"

"Nah, I'm satisfied for now and so far the Zeta seems to be operating fine if not quite at peak efficiency. Now if you'll excuse me Danse I have some tinkering to do."

See my queue to leave we gave each other a nod and walked away. Danse probably would want to double check the inventory while I had a few new toys to play with.

…

My workshop back in the weapons lab was all set up just the way I wanted it. Ever work station I could think of was there ranging from work benches and reloading benches to Nuka mixing machines and cooking stations. Seeing as I spent most of my time down here it seemed like a good idea to make it as comfortable as possible. Now that I was given plenty of time to settle down I could see about putting together my own chainsword.

Accessing the nearby holo-vender I spawned a chain sword, though I was weary of any spontaneous activations. Thankfully the weapon seemed in active with no signs of anything wrong with it. Mentally shrugging I decided to take that as a good sign and move on.

Taking it over to a nearby workstation I pulled up a hologram of its blueprints and got to work.

…

"Captain. Hey Captain? ALBERT!"

Jerking awake I nearly fell off the stool I had been napping on.

I had of course spent the night in the weapons lab as I usually did. There was something about sleeping while being surrounded by weapons was more comfortable than sleeping in an actual bed.

Rubbing my eyes I tried to rid myself of the grogginess of sleep.

"Hey Captain."

"Ugh damn it Sally. What did you need that you had to wake me up?"

"I just thought you'd like to know that we'll be arriving at Alpine in a few minutes." She said over the ship's intercom system.

"Alright I'll be up in a few. Just let me get my things together."

Standing up, I stretched my back and got started putting my tools away. When I was satisfied with my cleanliness, I grabbed the chainsword from where I had left it.

After a night of tinkering I was pretty satisfied with my work. Originally the sword was a scarlet red with plenty of dings and scratches. It's handle guard had been lined with rusted spike and it's teeth were on the verge of breaking. Now the casing had a nice new coat of black and the guard was polished steel. The teeth were the biggest change as it took most of the night trying to get the shape just right. What was once sharpened plasteel had been replaced with the much more durable and infinitely sharper saturnite.

Having run a few tests on several Garys I knew that it could cut a man in half easily, and I am not ashamed to say that I may have been a bit more enthusiastic than I had any right to be during said test. It was also sharp enough to cut clean through the Captain's tougher armor with a bit of force. Of course as good as it was I wasn't content just yet. Taking advantage of saturnite's ability to retain heat, I ran the blade through some plasma until I got the teeth glowing a bright hot orange. Now it charred and burned while simultaneously carving through whatever was unlucky enough to be on the receiving end.

Overall I was extremely happy with the end result.

Hooking the sword to my belt I made my way to the teleporter and up to the bridge. Much like before the view outside the window was stark white with the blurry black streaks of stars flying past.

"Arriving in five…four…three…two…one." Sally announced.

And just like that we were out of the mirror and looking out on a beautiful garden world. Alpine was a green and blue marble slightly smaller than earth. It had eight continent all covered in green vegetation and two snow covered poles. Yet the world was untouched by the Imperium, apparently left alone to advance their civilization far enough that they would be worthwhile to annex. Alpine was breathtaking to behold in all its natural glory. And yet…

"You know something Sally? I don't think those are supposed to be there."

There hanging in the void of space were two ships of similar yet also different design. The first was sleek looking with two wings and a sail in the back with the hull colored black and bone white. The second ship was similar in shape to the first yet where the black and white ship had graceful lines this had sharp edges. It had blades protruding from the sails and it was painted a dark black and deep purple. Also it appeared that they were shooting at each other.

"Well….shit."

**...**

**There were are. Now I understand that some of may call bullshit to all this tech but absolutely none of it was made up. This all stuff found in the games and merely expanded upon. The holo-venders, the cloning, the vehicles, the teleporters and much more exist in fallout world. Pre-war gear is super advanced to the point they could MANIPULATE MATTER! Seriously if properly applied, fallout tech could become pretty OP.**

**Now all of you have a good 2020.**


	3. Elves In Space!

**New chapter is here for your reading pleasure. Nothing much to say other than thanks for reading and that I am always open to suggestions. Leaving comment always makes me feel good which makes me want to write faster so go ahead and tell me what you like, dislike or want to see happen in the story.**

**Now for some commenters:**

**Malgrath- I don't think that speech would work to well. The eldar have seen quite a bit after all. The mini nukes are MUCH more common now thanks to Albert and his matter altering tech. Too bad he's going to need it.**

**UndeadLord22- Thanks for enjoying my work! It is most definitely possible for him to find one of the more stable and open minded chapters and I don't really see his power armor getting in the way, plenty of other people other than Marines wearing power armor after all.**

**SRPA Sentinel- Robots are awesome aren't they? The tech he has can be pretty devastating if used creatively or with other tech.**

**Ptl- No Outer Worlds stuff, sorry. It's not fallout and honestly other than the slip drive and a few minor changes tech, they don't really have anything that special.**

**Zefar- I'm afraid our favorites synth detective didn't come along for the ride. Every normal human companion died of old age as we humans tend to do and though Nick didn't age, he still had his own life to live in Diamond City, along with Hancock lead Goodneighbor, Raul lived the life of a gun slinging vaquero and Fawkes went to see the world. He always struck me as a sort of free spirt despite his loyalty to the Wanderer. Curie only cared about the player and advancing medicine while Danse is ever the loyal soldier even if it's to you instead of the Brotherhood. As for the eldar, as long as they don't try to kill him or murder innocents they'll be fine. If not, well he would gladly send their souls straight to She Who Thirsts.**

**Spartan-A312- he doesn't know about the squats…yet.**

**Trumpster15-I wouldn't really call him OP. He can still be hurt or killed by plenty of nasty things out in the galaxy, but that was also the case back in the Fallout era. He isn't the strongest, fastest or most powerful but he is going to make sure that when all is said and done he's still breathing. At the end of the day he is a survivor.**

_No, man. I know exactly what I'm doing. I just don't know what effect it's going to have._

_-Mr. Fantastic_

**Chapter 3: Elves…In…Space!**

"Soooo, what the hell?"

Outside the window there was a battle being fought between…actually I had no idea who was fighting who. All I knew was that a black and white ship was fighting a similar looking but raideresque black and purple ship. If you looked close enough you could see small fighters chasing each other out in the void of space and through a debris field that looked like the pieces of another black and purple ship.

"Well it looks like your luck is holding up even after thirty eight millennia. Stumbling into yet another battlefield." Sally quipped.

"I think you mean lack of. Now tell me who we are looking at because I have no clue."

Sally manifested her holographic body before waving her hand and two models of the alien ships appeared at her side. The more curved ship moved in front of her and slightly enlarged.

"From I can tell is that it appears to be an Eldar attack ship."

"The Eldar are the elves right?" I remembered reading about them and I couldn't help but compare their species to the fae of earth's old fairytales.

"Yep. More specifically the Craftworld Eldar. Based on the color scheme these Eldar seem to be from the Craftworld of Ulthwe, known for their powerful psykers in an already magical race and very well trained grunts. This ship in particular seems to be a Shadow class cruiser which seem to be fast, maneuverable and powerful at the cost of being pretty fragile."

"And the Eldar as a whole?" I asked.

"Like they're ships they tend to be fast and have powerful weaponry but they can't take most hits. Although all the data says that they are extremely cunning, manipulative, opportunistic and prideful to a fault."

The model of the Eldar ship shrunk back down and was replaced by the second more menacing ship.

"This charming piece of engineering is what's known as a Torture class light cruiser. Owned and operated by the Dark Eldar. They're known to be sadistic, cruel and just down right evil."

"So they're the raiders of the Eldar family, huh? Any idea what makes them so special?" It was always good to know if an enemy had something up their sleeve and how best to prepare for it.

"It appears their ship is much like the Shadow class but built more for surprise and attacking unsuspecting targets. Normal Dark Eldar are physically stronger than regular Eldar but seem to lack the natural affinity for psychic abilities. Their troops however are usually armed with something called splinter weapons. They tend to shoot some sort of crystallized toxin that can kill most anything within a couple minutes. Of course you'll be in agonizing pain and wishing you _were_ dead until then."

"I've been stung by plenty of Cazadores before. Trust me I'll manage." Apparently old Dr. Borous hadn't just made the those monster bugs from nothing all those years ago. They were based off of the prewar Tarantula Hawk which had a sting painful enough to make grown man drop to the ground and start screaming, and that was when they were small. The first time I had gotten stung it felt as if every nerve was simultaneously lit on fire, dipped in battery acid and stabbed with a rusty knife. And that had just been a young Cazador.

"Yeah well just be careful if you do get hit. I don't need you dying on me." Sally said stomping her holographic foot.

"Anyways, the Dark Eldar are slavers at heart, attacking unprepared planets and cities, killing and enslaving the populace and taking them to…somewhere. The data files don't go into much detail after that but it definitely can't be good."

"Alright if the Eldar are such cunning opportunists and their edgy cousins are just a bunch of up jumped raiders, why are they currently trying to kill each other out here in the middle of no where?"

Sally became as still as a statue for a second before blinking her avatar and dispelled the display of the two ships and brought up what I assumed was a video feed.

"Well apparently the fighting isn't just here in the void."

Of course Sally was right. There on the video feed of what I now recognized as one of the forward ship cameras that were facing Alpine, I could see what she meant. On the screen was a large village with houses that looked to be made of wood and stone, though several seemed to be on fire. The locals were running around like mad, no doubt screaming their heads off. They were mostly dressed in clothes that looked like they had been ripped straight from the medieval times, but what stood out were the armored warriors fighting in the streets as blue and purple projectiles streaked through the air. It was easy to tell who was who as the Eldar wore armor that matched their ship with their black and white coloring while their raider kin were dressed in black bladed armor that couldn't have looked more evil if they tried.

"What the hell are they doing down there?"

"Well it looks like the Eldar are…protecting the locals?" Sally said more as a question than anything.

Now that I was looking it did seem like the Eldar were defending the locals. It was obvious now why the Dark Eldar were here. They see this planet where the pinnacle of technology was the wheelbarrow and saw it as easy pickings. They attack the planet expecting little to no resistance but are taken by surprise by the Craftworlders. But that begs the question as to why they were defending the humans.

Everything I had read pointed to the Eldar being extremely self serving. Every piece of data said that they looked down on humanity as being inferior and never put any of their people in harms way if they could help it. Yet the information also said that in times of crisis the Imperium could rely on the Eldar to declare a truce to deal with a common foe while at the same time ready to stab each other in the back at a moments notice. This made no sense.

Unless…

"Are they actually defending the humans or are they just fighting the Dark Eldar?"

"What do you mean?" Sally asked. "Isn't that one in the same?"

"Not even close. If they were focused on protecting the humans they would be evacuating them while giving them covering fire. If they are just here to fight then they wouldn't care if anyone got caught in the crossfire. Like that." I said motioning towards the screen.

The image zoomed in on a street corner where several troops of both sides were firing blue and purple projectiles at each other. A dew dirt covered locals were running for their lives when they turned a corner and accidentally ran right into the middle of the fire fight. Several of the black clad Eldar seemed to deliberately aim for the civilians while the ones from Ulthwe continued firing, uncaring of who got in the way.

"Oh. So what do we do now?" Sally asked.

And there was the question of the hour. What do I do?

I had no connection to Alpine. I didn't know the people nor did I owe them anything. The stealth fields were still up and neither ship knew we were here. There were no doubt plenty of other planets we could go to for supplies, all it would take would be a quick trip back into the Mirror and we were gone.

Of course the people of Alpine probably wouldn't come out of this all right. Depending on who won the battle they could be facing enslavement and if the Dark Eldar were like the Raiders of my time, a horrible death. I could of coarse always stay and fight. However if I _were_ to stay, I would be going up against a mostly unknown force, heavily outnumbered, and would most likely get myself killed.

The choice was easy really. Run and live to see another day. And yet…

"Ah fuck it. Sally, send word to Codsworth and Wadsworth to prep the Zeta recon craft. I'm heading down there to see if I can make a difference."

"And the Zeta?" She asked.

"I'll leave her in your capable and nonexistent hands. You do what you think is best. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some raiders to kill." I said with a nasty smile gracing my features.

…

**Roopert**

Oh by the World Mother why was this happening?!

Norfork was supposed to be the treasure of the continent, the greatest city in the north. Now it was nothing but a charnel house because of those demons. Monsters the lot of them!

It had been just another day. No monsters wielding vicious magic or flying ships sailing through the air raining death on the ones below. I had been in the tavern with Loo, planning out which houses were owned by the local lords and when they might be ripe for thieving a great many nobles were running to their summoned homes thanks to the tales of monsters in the night, wiping out whole villages and desecrating their bodies. Everyone had heard the stores and all were afraid, but the abandoned homes were a perfect opportunity. Then the roof exploded. The monsters came then, cutting down those that caught their attention.

One such monster, dressed in its vile black armor spotted me and leveled its staff at my chest. I would've been dead had Loo not stood up to run. Unfortunately he didn't die. He screamed. Screamed as if he were on fire as he fell to the floor with a purple spike embedded in his chest.

No one could blame me for running.

As I ran I saw that the demons were not alone and that these other strange black and white clad warriors saw fit to kill the demons. Of course they cared nothing about us but that was fine by me since they had yet to try and kill me. Unfortunately it seemed that the monster from the tavern took offense to the fact that I was still alive.

It hunted me. I had turned a corner only to run into the thing and cut my self deeply on it bladed armor. It just stood there as I lay on the ground, a cruel chuckle coming from whatever it called a throat. I knew it could kill me and yet it did nothing. So I ran again only for that thing to be waiting for me. Again and again I ran but every time it would be waiting for me. Sometimes it struck out with its clawed gauntlets and rend more of my flesh while other times it would do nothing but revel in my fear.

Now it seemed to have grown tired of the chase.

All it had taken was a was a armored kick to the legs and the hunt was over. Falling face first into the dirt was not a good feeling though the overwhelming fear of what came next was infinitely worse. Turning back around I found the monster standing over me with that dark chuckle turning into horrible laughter.

"Please! Please no oh gods please don't kill me!" I begged but it just seemed to make the monster laugh harder. It raised it lowered its horrible weapon and instead reached towards me with its clawed hand.

This was wrong! I didn't want to die!

Yet I never felt it's monstrous hand take hold of me. Instead I saw the black armored monster fall to the ground with someone else on top of him. It looked similar to the monster in that was of similar height and it wore black armor yet that's where the similarities ended. The armor was more angular and it's helmet was more rounded than my attacker's pointed helm. Its metal mask had odd tubes and the eyes glowed with a blood red light and then there was the long brown coat it wore over the armor.

The man, or I believed it was a man had what looked like some blocky and black sword that seemed to roar in his hand. It had the monster pinned to the ground underneath it with that roaring sword pushing down on the monsters staff in a struggle for supremacy. After a few seconds of struggling the staff snapped and the warriors blade slammed into the monster's chest piece which seemed to offer little resistance. The spray of blood and the monster's scream was all the signal I needed that it was time to go.

Of course as I got to my feet the thing stood up as well and turned its red gaze onto me. I froze, perhaps in some vain hope that standing still would make it so the armored warrior couldn't see me.

Then the thing motioned its growling sword toward the alley I had come from, though now there seemed to be some sort of floating steel disk with a half sphere of glass on the front covering what looked like a strange seat surrounded by blinking lights. Yet even as I watched, the floating craft seemed to ripple like water and disappear into thin air.

Looking back at the warrior I saw him still pointing towards the alley. Of course I did the only thing I could do.

I ran.

…

**Albert Grimm**

As the man ran away, I glanced down at the dead eldar at my feet and then inspected the chainsword for any damage.

"Alright teeth are still sharp, motor is good, no dents that I can see. Well I guess that's as good of a field test as any." I said to my self as I put the sword away and wiped off some of the blood from my armor.

Said armor being the Elite Riot Armor made by the U.S. government for frontline combat and suppressing even the worst of riots. It was only a step down from power armor and could take hits from heavy munitions, grenades, loser bolts, plasma blasts and to an extent missiles. I had never had the need to upgrade the armor itself over the three centuries I had used it. Well, except for painting the armor black as a means for both stealth and intimidation. The real upgrades had been to the clothes underneath. Instead of the normal military fatigues, I instead wore a dark grey body suit similar in design to the Y-17 trauma override harness created at the Big Mountain research facility. Said harnesses had been meant to take control of a soldier's movements and walk them back to their base in the event of a crippling or life threatening injury. It did so using intelligent fibers and artificial muscles hooked up to a basic AI program. Of course it being something designed by the Think Tank, it went horribly wrong. However I had been inspired and had used their old research to make something new.

The Z-6 enhancement harness worked similar to the Y-17 in that it used smart fibers and fakes muscle, but their purposes and design were completely different. The Y-17 harness had been covered by red and yellow rubber suits and sealed glass helmets while my invention was covered by a grey suit made of leather body suit lined MkV ballistic weave. Also while the former was meant to only activate upon a severe injury and be operated by its programming, my suit was always on and used the artificial fibers and muscles to enhance the wearer's movement speed and strength without risk of any catastrophic failures. In a way it acted like a form of skintight pseudo power armor.

Somehow I knew I was going to need all the help I could get.

Running up to the nearest wall, I jumped up to grab the edge of the roof and pulled myself up to see what I had to deal with. The first thing I saw were the flashes gunfire in the streets, but what I really had to deal with first were the dozen or so flying ships that were zipping through the air. They looked like small sailing ships, each carrying three to four dark eldar who were firing down onto the buildings and citizens below.

Pulling up my pipboy, I summoned the perfect weapon to take down such small and fast targets. The quad-barreled missile launcher rested on my shoulder with a and I took some comfort familiar weight. Aiming down the sight at the nearest eldar craft, I waited for the beep from its targeting computer. With a jet of flame, the high velocity missile soared through the air and I caught a glimpse of the eldar near the front yell at the pilot just a second before the heavy ordinance impacted their ship. The explosion tore apart their craft and I saw several black clad limbs go flying as well. I grimaced as the wreckage fell from the air and slammed into a house, but I knew the collateral damage would pale in comparison to what would happen if the ships were left to their own devises.

Not wasting any more time and still having the element of surprise, I blasted three more ships before reloading. As I aimed the launcher again I spied three of the ships off to my left turn towards me. Naturally I aimed at the incoming threat and let loose a missile at the one of the left.

Unlike the previous pilot who was caught unaware, this one saw the attack coming and just before impact, swerved to the left and managed to completely avoid the explosive payload. Unfortunately for the pilot they did not expect the missile to make a U-turn in the air and hit the back of the ship, which resulted in another downed craft.

Launching the next missile at the middle ship, I didn't expect for it to actually hit, as no doubt the eldar had seen how their fellow raider was brought down and probably had some form of countermeasures for such an occasion. What I didn't expect however, was for a burst of purple munitions fired by the eldar manning the large gun on the bow of the ship to hit the missile midair before it could get half way to its target.

Surprised but also more focused on the ships getting ever closer, I aimed another missile at the same ship, now expecting it to be shot as well. I knew I was right as I saw the gunner shift his aim and fire. Of course it was as he pulled the trigger did I fire my last missile as well. The third missile exploded just like the second had, but the gunner only just saw the fourth payload heading towards him when the front half of the ship exploded.

My victory was short lived however as the final craft was almost on me, their weapons were taking aim and I was out of ammunition. Yet despite all that I smiled. This was the kind of thing to get my blood pumping, the thrill of a fight and in that moment of knowing that you were about to die, well you never felt more alive. It also helped that I always had an ace up my sleeve.

Raising my empty left hand, I activated the pipboy again and a red and yellow laser pistol appeared in my grip. Then the world slowed down as VATS activated and my mind was flooded with trajectories and calculations as my eyes focused on the ship's passengers. The one manning the gun was the easiest to hit but that left me open to the two riflemen on either side of the ship who were also drawing a bead. One was covered head to toe in armor while the other was missing their helmet, showing off his pale flesh, bald head and his big sadistic smile. The pilot was in the back wearing full armor as well and was the hardest to hit. Letting VATS do its work, I aimed for him and pulled the trigger.

The AEP7 laser pistol, Pew Pew, had been customized by the murderous Star Bottle cap hunter Allen Marks. It could only fire twice before needing to be reloaded, but each shot was powered by half of the entire energy cell and that power was only increased when using a max charge energy cell.

The bright orange beam of light that shot out of the pistol struck the eldar pilot in their armored face. The armor proved ineffective as the laser penetrated his defenses and with a flash of heat the eldar was vaporized, becoming nothing more than ash on the wind. Of course with the eldar pilot gone, I had to the ask myself the age old question of 'what happens when a aircraft going several hundred miles per hour and close to the ground, when its pilot suddenly dies?'

The answer was fairly obvious.

The front of the craft dipped and the tip caught the edge of a building and sent it spiraling through the air. Unfortunately it was spiraling straight towards me.

Throwing myself off the roof, I just barely avoid the wreck as it soared over head. The cobblestone road I landed on was not the most comfortable of landings. Picking myself up off the ground with a groan I saw that the aircraft was nothing more than a twisted heap with the remains of the gunner looking just as twisted. I was about to mentally congratulate myself on a job well done when I noticed something, or in this case the lack of something. Namely the bodies of the two additional passengers.

With a mix of my pipboy's motion tracker and my gut instincts, I was able to duck the blow that would have taken my head off. I saw a gleaming serrated blade attached to a rifle barrel pass by overhead and quickly spun around to see the helmetless eldar snarling at me while his fully armored companion stood a few meters away, aiming his rifle at me. At a brief glance they both seemed none the worse for wear, but the helmeted one's left arm was bent at an unnatural angle and their grip on their rifle wasn't so firm and was struggling to keep the weapon point towards me.

That was all I could get before the bald eldar lunged at me.

It was almost disturbing how fast he moved. It was a quick and graceful lunge and had my reaction speed been any slower, I would have been skewered. Instead I back peddled just enough that the tip only managed to go in a couple inches, a few inches below my rib cage and right through my armor like it was tissue paper. Had it been any other time, I would have been very impressed with the bayonet's sharpness, but as it was I was both slightly annoyed and absolutely pissed. I hated having my toys damaged.

Grabbing ahold of the rifle barrel, I pulled the bayonet out and much to the eldar's shock, swung the weapon over my head with him still holding on. As he reached the apex of the arc I jerked the rifle back, the alien lost his grip and was sent flying.

Then loosening my grip on the gun, I let it slide through my hand until the handle fell into my palm, I jammed the rifle stock into my shoulder and aimed the barrel at the other eldar who now had a completely unobstructed shot on me. I knew that even with that broken arm we were simply too close for him to miss, so I decided to shoot him first.

With a controlled burst I sent several purple shards sailing at the rifleman and was not disappointed when three hit him square in the chest, going right through his thin armor while another shard went right through their faceplate and into their left cheekbone. The effect was instantaneous and the eldar fell to the ground screaming. I unfortunately did the same.

The Eldar's aim was inaccurate, but not completely off. He had pulled the trigger the same time I had and I had felt the pain of those needles piercing my flesh. I felt an impact in my abdomen but no piercing pain, so the armor had stopped that one, but the other two were another matter. One poisoned shard went right through the left glove and into back of my hand, only stopping when it hit adimantium bone. The second I felt hit my left bicep just below the shoulder guard.

It was far more…excruciating than I was expecting.

Dropping to one knee, I leaned on the rifle to keep myself up while I grit my teeth. Forget Cazador venom, my veins felt like they were full of burning plasma. It was excruciating and even as I watched the dark eldar I shot try to pull out some sort of syringe from a hidden compartment in his armor, his screaming intensified before falling quiet and still.

Pushing myself to my feet I sprinted over to the corpse and went to grab the syringe that was still in the now lifeless hands. Based on how desperate he was to get it, the odds were it was some sort of anti-toxin. Yet just as I went to pick it up, something crashed into my back and there was a sharp pain in my right side, though it was muted compared to the poison in my bloodstream. No doubt the only reason I was still alive were the cybernetics specifically designed to render poison and venom nonlethal, though that did nothing to stop one from feeling the pain, and pain tended to make people sloppy, like say forgetting about the last eldar survivor.

Falling to the ground I used the momentum to roll onto my back only to find the eldar glaring at me with a curved knife plunging towards my chest. Grabbing his wrist, the blade stopped a few inches above my chest plate. Of course he then used his other hand, his bulk, and gravity to try and push it further down. He was stronger than I would have thought given his somewhat thin frame, but I still beat him in the strength department. Unfortunately he still had the other advantages while I had my back to the ground, one hand had a purple crystal sticking out of it and was in enough pain that it made it difficult to focus. Worst all the bastard knew it.

As the blade slowly lowered he flashed me a wicked smile. "Mael dannan mon-keigh."

…

…

"Did you just call me a monkey?"

I was in a lot of pain, bleeding and getting called a monkey was just the icing on the shit cake. With a roar I shoved the knife upwards with all my strength and the hilt slammed into his chest. I didn't think it hurt him, but that really wasn't my intention.

Letting go of the knife with my left hand I now had enough time to send a powerful backhand across his unprotected face. I felt his cheekbone give, saw several teeth fly out of his mouth and most importantly jammed the purple shard deep into his flesh.

Pulling my hand back, I grabbed his head with both hands and with a hard twist, snapped his neck. His body went limp on top of me but his screaming continued on, no doubt that wouldn't take to long to stop as well. Pushing the alien off of me, I grabbed the nearby syringe and jammed it into my bicep, and with a hiss it automatically injected itself into my blood stream.

With a sigh of relief, the pain just faded away. Looking at my pipboy my vitals were not looking so hot, but the damage was relatively minor and my regeneration was already healing the damage. No longer in any obvious danger, I set about the age old tradition of looting the corpses.

The first eldar had a couple more anti-toxins on them and both rifles were taken as well. The knife the bald one used was put into the pipboy as well but for some reason I couldn't take off their armor as it seemed to be attached to their bodies, which had implications that I did not wish to dwell on, so instead I picked up Pew Pew and the missile launcher from where they fell.

Satisfied that I was prepared for the rest of the battle, I went over my mental checklist for the best weapon to deal with the other eldar. Their armor was weak, so there was no need for any anti-armor weaponry. They were unusually fast so it had to be something that could drop them just as quick and not let them get their bearings. They were also excellent shots and their weapons were extremely deadly, no need for a weapon that required me to expose myself for extended periods.

I smiled as I summoned just the weapon.

The 25mm APW was just what I was looking for. It was a semiautomatic grenade rifle customized with an extended barrel, advanced internals and a drum magazine loaded with high explosive 25mm grenades. It was perfect for groups of lightly armored targets.

Satisfied, I got back up on the rooftop and looked around the city for more fighting and was not disappointed when I noticed some weapons fire a few streets down. Hopping down I sprinted down the cobblestone paths until I saw a few blue streaks fly down the intersection I was approaching.

Stopping just before the intersection, I hugged the corner and glanced down the street. There I could see five dark eldar warriors trading fire with three eldar from Ulthwe. Their armor matched their ship in orbit with the body armor being entirely pitch black while most of their helmets and weapons were the color of bone. They looked far more sleek by forgoing the sharp edges and menacing aura of their dark cousins. The only odd thing I could really see were the large red gemstones adorning their chest plates, positioned over where I assumed their heart would be.

The three craftworlders were holding their own despite being outnumbered, but neither side really had an advantage as the street was too open to risk coming out from behind cover. I planned on rectifying that of course. Taking aim at three dark eldar that had bunched together, I was just about to pull the trigger when one of them went to shoot only to be hit in the arm, severing most of it save for a small strip of flesh keeping it attached. The hit spun them on their heel and they fell with their back to cover, gripping the remains of their arm. Of course I noticed the way their head suddenly stilled as the lenses covering their eyes locked onto me.

With a small smile I sent the grenade their way and the eldar had only just tried to get to their feet in a last ditch effort to dodge. The grenade hit the eldar to their left and the explosion turned him into bloody chunks while the others were only mostly blown apart. Shifting my aim, I fired on another alien that had just ducked behind a wall, incorrectly assuming the explosive payload had come from down range rather than behind them. The next grenade hit the ground in front of him and destroyed the lower half of his body. Then the last alien raider seemed to consider fleeing to be much more beneficial to his health and dove for a nearby open window, only for the window, the wall and their body to be torn apart by a third grenade.

With the gunfire momentarily stopped, I saw the three Ulthwe warriors scanning their surroundings, no doubt confused on who had blown up their opponents. Deciding to be a bit cheeky, I leaned out so they could see me. They all shifted their rifles on me immediately, but thankfully didn't open fire.

"You guys owe me one!" I shouted.

I gave them a two finger salute before ducking back behind the wall and followed the sounds of battle. There was still plenty of fighting you do after all.

…

**Sally**

"Oh who is the bravest of all mankind? Captain Cosmos!" I sang as I watched the two alien ships trying to kill each other.

"Oh who kicks the most Space-Commie behind? Captain Cosmos! For he is our idol and hero. He'll tick all of America's threats strait down to zero!

Captain Cosmos, Captain Cosmos, Caaaaptaaain Cosmoooos!"

...

"Wow, and I thought my singing was bad." A small little robot said.

"Don't be mean Muggy." I said glaring at the mini-securitron. "Besides, the Captain says I have a very unique voice."

"Unique doesn't mean good."

I flew him a holographic raspberry and turned my attention back to the ships fighting it out. Both were fast ships and they were dancing around each other, weaving in and out of debris and barely avoiding each others fire. From the looks of it, the weapons were very powerful, but built more for long range fighting and it took a few moments to try and line up a shot, giving their opponent just enough time to dodge the energy blast. If my calculations were correct (which was always) then the Zeta could take plenty of hits just fine. The green big headed aliens may have been huge jerkes, but they made awesome ships. Sure, I only had one weapon but the death ray could vaporize a city on low power and on high power it could destroy a continent. Not to mention the shields were meant to take several shots from said Death Ray before failing. I am a tough ship after all.

Huh, still feels weird calling myself a ship. A few dozen millennia and one would think they would have gotten used to it by now.

Sometimes I missed my old body. Sure it had been small and fleshy and kinda weak and sometimes my hair got tangled and it was always super hard to untangle it, but it had still been me. The stupid aliens had done plenty of tests on me, though nothing nearly as bad as some the old datalogs said they could have been. Still, they had given me a shot and while they were distracted, I escaped and found Captain Albert! Although he wasn't the captain yet so I guess I just found Albert. And sure, we beat the green meanies, but apparently the aliens had given me some super virus meant to wipe out all of humanity and were going to release me on earth as patient zero. To bad for the dummies that I decided to not only stay on the mothership, the virus they had given me was based off of the research into prewar humans. Post war humans had slightly and adaptable DNA that left them immune to the disease and I hadn't spent enough time around Mr. Elliot to infect him either. To bad for me I still had the disease and was dying.

Albert had felt so bad that he couldn't help me, but he could freeze me until he found away to save me. I was frozen for ten years before Albert thawed me out now that he had plenty of resources to work with. Unfortunately the virus was simply too integrated in my body to cure and a clone body couldn't be made as all the DNA was infected too. Although their was one small blessing in that while it shut down the body, the brain had been left relatively intact. All he had to do was take it out.

Albert wasn't enthusiastic about turning me into a Robo-brain but I was alright with it. Then upon my request, Al hooked my brain case up into the Zeta, and since then I've been living the good life, being an awesome space ship and all.

"Hey is that supposed to happen?" Muggy asked.

Breaking out of my reminiscing, my sensors detected an explosion and my fore cameras showed the Craftworld ship tilt to the side and start spiraling in the void. Zooming in, I could see the top rear sail had been struck and the ship seemed to be dead in space. Even now the dark eldar ship was closing in, slowly approaching the other craft, though I briefly wondered why they hadn't just blown them up and be done with it. Then I remembered the dark aliens were slavers. No doubt that slavery also extended to their own race.

Now what to do?

The Craftworlders were reported to back stab, betray and manipulate every other race for little to no reason and would sometimes attack worlds out of nowhere, again for apparently no reason. Then again they would also help out said planets sometimes and tended to be more neutral when dealing with humans who weren't trying to kill them. The dark eldar on the other hand were monsters, plain and simple. Dying by their hands was apparently considered a mercy compared to being taken alive. So either save the untrustworthy elves or leave them to the mercy of evil space pirates.

Ugh, what would Albert do in this situation? Actually I know exactly what he would do. Choose the lesser of two evils and if necessary, kill the lesser evil as well.

Diverting power to the death ray, I made the calculations and waited for just the right moment. Then a green beam of energy shot out and with out any warning or time to dodge, the black ship was struck in the side. The explosion didn't look as powerful in the void of space as opposed to hitting a target planet side, but results speak for themselves. The spaceship shattered as the power of the beam rippled along their hull, destroying everything in its path. In a few seconds, what had once been a terrifying looking attack ship was now nothing but fragments floating in the void.

I stared for a few moments, comprehending what had just happened. Then I raised my nonexistent arms and whooped with joy.

"That…was…awesome!"

…

**Albert**

Ducking behind cover, I narrowly avoided the splinter fire that would have turned me into a pin cushion. Reaching for my belt, I grabbed a cryo grenade and tossed it over my cover where it exploded with a rush of subzero air. Peeking over the stack of logs, I saw four dark eldar encased in ice and more importantly stuck in place, for the moment anyways. Lifting the grenade rifle, I fired my last grenade in the drum and the helpless aliens exploded into chunks of meat and ice.

Satisfied with their death, I called out to the family hiding in the nearby building that the coast was clear. The family of four, a father, mother and two little girls dressed in what must have once been pretty dresses, all cautiously stepped out of cover while looking for anymore danger. I don't think they understood what I was saying but all I really needed to do was point them back the way I had come. It was the only path I knew was clear, mainly because all of the threats were now corpses.

Just before they left, the oldest girl, probably not more than ten, came up and hugged my legs. She also while mumbled something in her own language before letting go and heading back to her parents.

I smiled. It always felt good to slaughter your enemies, but it felt oh so much better when you save a life as well. Sometimes it was better to act as a shield as opposed to a sword.

Shaking my head, I got back to focusing on the battle around me. The sound of weapons fire was dying down and what few dark eldar ships that were still flying were quickly being shot out of the air by several fast flying black and white aircraft that had shown up a few minutes ago. Most of the buildings in the city were relatively intact, but more than a few had been damaged beyond repair and several were nothing but rubble. There were corpses scattered around, most of them human, but also eldar of both types, though there were very few craftworlders among the dead. Every time I came across one of the black and white bodies, I could see they were all missing those red jewels they had on their chests. Perhaps that was their form of dog tags?

I had of course continued on with the fighting, killing any xeno raider that came across my path and saving what survivors I could. The fights were starting to get harder to find but I could still hear plenty of noise coming from the city center. According to my mapping software on my pipboy, that was where the city market was and had the most open space.

Nodding to myself, I set off at a fast jog while reloading my weapons and checking on their condition to see if I they were still in working order for the upcoming fight. It was as I was putting a new energy cell in Pew Pew that my helmet radio went off, alerting me that I was getting a call from the Zeta.

"Albert here. How's it going up there Sally." I said while jogging along.

"Pretty well! I watched the ships fight for a while before the bad guys managed to cripple the not so bad guys. I intervened, the bad guys are dead, I'm fine and the magic aliens sent a bunch of fighters down towards the planet."

"Yeah, I noticed the last one. Good job on taking out those bastards, but keep an eye on the Ulthwe ship. If it starts doing anything you don't like, don't hesitate to blow it to hell." Turning right, I heard the sounds of the battlefield getting closer.

"Can do! No how's it going down there?" Sally asked.

"Not to bad actually. It started off fine but then it got a little rough, but once I learned how to deal with their grunts, I've been having a fun time. Now if you'll excuse me I…oh boy." I said coming around a bend only to see the battle I had been looking for.

The market area was located in a very large courtyard with plenty of roads running into the place from all directions with dozens of now destroyed market stalls littered the grounds. On the left side of the market were about a hundred or so dark eldar, most hiding behind cover while the few that tried to charge their opposition were quickly gunned down. On the other side were about twenty five eldar of Ulthwe. Most were the standard troops I had seen before, but three stood out. They were slightly in front of the firing line, taking cover behind a large stone fountain. All three wore black robes and armor, they were decorated with strange runes and didn't carry any rifles. Instead, one had a large spear that they threw at the dark eldar, only for it to return to their hand while the other two carried pistols and swords. The middle stood out the most as their armor was lined with even more runes and based on the way they were gesturing towards the battle field, and the way the troops responded, I'm guessing they were the leader.

"Uh Sally I'll have to call you back." I said hanging up.

No way was I going to run head first into that shooting gallery. No I needed to get to a good position to see the entire battlefield while giving myself some cover to hide behind. Looking up, I could just faintly see what looked like smoke stacks on top of the roof to my right. With a flash of light a rifle appeared in my arms, it had a wide barrel with a three pronged grappling hook sticking out. Based of the designs for the Rock-It Launcher, the grapple rifle could launch the hook as high as a skyscraper if I needed it to. Using if for the four storied building was nothing. With a whoosh, the hook shot out with a thin but strong rope trailing behind. With a thunk and a quick tug on the rope to test the grip, I pulled myself up to the roof.

Ducking behind several chimneys, I equipped myself with one of my favorite weapons. The 50 cal. Anti-material rifle was simple yet oh so effective, and made even more so with several mods. The first being the suppressor that dampened the noise without any cost to damage and a magazine loaded with explosive rounds. Flipping down the bipod, I set the large rifle down on top of the chimney and gazed through the scope.

There in the front was a dark eldar sending bursts of toxic needles at his fellow aliens. The cross hairs rested on his lightly armored chest, now inhale, exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Squeeze the trigger.

As the weapon recoiled, I could picture everything in my mind's eye. The fifty caliber round rotating with the rifling, exiting the barrel as it flies through the air, the dark eldar is oblivious of the it's trajectory, the round strikes his armor and penetrates with ease before detonating and blowing his upper body apart in a spray of red. In my mind I see every step. In real life it happens in the blink of an eye.

The Eldar went down and the one beside him is thrown to the ground by the small explosion. Shifting the rifle I see them getting up and put around through him as well. I shoot another slaver and another after that. My bullets aren't as noticeable as the blue and purple streaks flying through the air and the bullets go unnoticed until they find their target. They don't know where I am but they quickly learn about my existence and stay behind any cover as much as possible lest they fall as well.

I fire until I need to reload and just as I insert a new magazine I feel a pain in my chest, an all to familiar agony courses through my body. This time however, I was expecting the pain and could prepare myself. Materializing a stimpak, I jam it into my thigh and it's powerful agents began fighting the toxin. Unfortunately the pain didn't stop as my body was only healing as fast as the poison was destroying it. Gritting my teeth, I readjusted the rifle and saw a dark eldar turning away from my position, no doubt assuming I was dead. I put another round through him and began firing at any cover I could see, exposing the black armored aliens to the fire of their cousins.

It went like that for a few minutes while making sure to kill any alien that managed to figure out my firing position. The toxin in my blood seemed to have run it's coarse after about five minutes. I added making more of that anti-toxin to my to do list incase I ever ran into more dark eldar. Reloading after killing another eldar who spotted me, I ducked behind cover and was about to move to another position when I realized something.

Why was it starting to quiet down?

Peeking out, I looked at the Craftworld side and was surprised to find only a handful left. The rest seemingly vanished with only a couple bodies being left behind, though I couldn't help but notice that they were all missing those gems as well.

There were about three riflemen laying down suppressing fire while the three leaders tried to pull out, well two of them at least. The one with the most decorated armor seemed to be yelling something at the other two who promptly ignored their leader. Discontent amongst the ranks maybe? Either way the leader looked back and forth between the battlefield and their retreating subordinates before running to join up with them.

Smart move. As much as the leader seamed to want to continue the battle, they couldn't do it by themselves. All that could be done was fall back to fight another day and- "What the fuck?!"

My eyes widened at what had just happened. The leader had managed to catch up to their troops when one of the robed ones stun on their heel and faster than it took to blink, drove their sword through the leader's stomach and out their back. The leader couldn't defend their self in time, dropping their pistol and sword in shock. The attacker planted their foot on the leaders chest and kicked them off the blade. The runed warrior fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.

And just like that, the two robed warriors quickly left, running with an unnatural grace and inhuman speed, with the three foot soldiers following close behind. With the craftworlders gone, all weapons fire ceased and the silence that followed was jarring. I was almost afraid that my breathing might give away my position before dispelling such a silly thought. Leaning out a bit more I saw that the dark eldar were realizing that their main opponents were gone and were slowly starting to come out of cover. They picked their way through the wreckage of the market and from what I could guess, there were only about half of them left. They inspected the bodies of the other eldar, turning them all face up and from what I knew of body language, they seemed disappointed from some reason. Then they got to the body of the leader and…actually where is the body?

Glancing around, I saw no sign of the alien's body anywhere, though the blood trail heading towards a destroyed shop was a clear giveaway. Unfortunately I wasn't the only one to notice it as several mooks followed the trail with their rifles raised and ready.

"Well shit. Alright Albert, the eldar are pulling out and now I'm alone with several dozen murderous sadists. Nothing new there unfortunately, but their much better armed than usual. I could always just leave. Everyone's evacuated so I could just bomb the city and be done with it."

Of course that's when two dark armored aliens came back from the shop, dragging the injured eldar leader by their arms. They seemed to be trying to struggle against their captors, but that soon proved ineffective as the slaver's grips were to strong to so easily break. The prisoner was dragged in front of the group of murderous xenos and I heard a few holler and whoop in excitement. I guess they had no idea that they're ship was destroyed, otherwise I don't think they would be acting so excited over one measly prisoner. Some the aliens started shoving their fellows trying to get a look the prisoner, though like a switch had been flipped they all went still. The crowd parted like the red sea as a smaller group made their way through. It was a group of three individuals and I have to say they were no doubt the strangest group I had ever seen, and that was saying a lot.

The furthest one to the back was humanoid in shape, wearing black robes under purple armor with their masked face staring at the ground. It's head was nothing more than what looked like a disgustingly oversized brain that made we wonder how the hell that thing was even alive. I also noticed that the things hands and feet were chained as it marched along. The next creature looked like something ripped from a prewar monster movie. It was a seven foot tall green lizard man with four scaly arms, each holding a different sword, and had a long snake like tail instead of legs. Then the one leading trio was no doubt another dark eldar only with MUCH more elaborate armor. For starters it was black with a long flowing purple cape that trailed behind the alien as he (I think it was a male) walked towards his new prisoner. His shoulder pauldrons had two impractically long spikes jutting upwards, both of which had a human skull impaled on them. A pistol and a jagged bone looking sword hung from his hip while his helmet was a smooth featureless black save for two red lenses and two backward curling horns.

"Wow…that guy is trying way to hard."

Strange taste in gear aside, no way was this guy anything less than the leader of this raiding party. The way everyone reacted and the much more opulent armor just screamed raider boss. The leader strode forward until he was right in front of his craftworld counterpart where he examined them for a minute, taking in their appearance and briefly examining the wound in their abdomen. Then he ran his fingers along the helm even as the prisoner jerked their head away. I think the leader chuckled at the display of defiance before turning his back to them and started walking away. He said something in a language that sounded strangely melodic. Then all the raiders suddenly stood at attention and began to walk away.

Just what I needed. I could simply slip away and get back to the Zeta. My work was done, all I need to do was bomb whatever part of the city these bastards would be in at the time.

Glancing at the group, my gaze lingered on their wounded and still struggling prisoner. Maybe I could…

No no no! Bad Albert! They were a combatant, they knew the risks. Sure it was sad that they were betrayed by their fellows for some reason, but who knows? Maybe the bastard had it coming. Maybe they were a horrible person and they were getting their comeuppance. Yes being taken prisoner by sadistic slavers could be a fate worse than death but it wasn't my problem. It also wasn't my problem that the evil aliens would probably take out their frustrations on the prisoner once they realized they had no way of leaving.

Nope. Not…my…problem.

…

…

…

"Oh fuck you conscious, fuck you." I said with a sigh. Honestly, you would think three hundred years of bloodshed and violence would have dulled my need to do the heroic thing by now.

Switching my rifle out for the grenade launcher again, I pulled out the magazine and put in two custom relay grenades with three incendiaries on top. Putting in the magazine, I closed my eyes, steadied my breathing and calmed my cybernetic heart. In and out, in and out. "Three, two, one."

My eyes shot open, I stood up and out of cover, lined up my shot and let the grenades fly.

The first two landed among the group, but I only managed to hit about six before the others leapt out of reach of the flames. The third landed in front of the group, though this one wasn't meant to actually hit any one, only get their attention and block their path. Now I took my time to aim the next two and was satisfied when the first landed right in front of the burning ground while the second landed a few meters behind.

There was a crack and what looked like two bolts of blue lightning striking the ground and forming two silhouettes of different sizes. The smaller one was hidden from the eldar's view by the much larger and bulkier shape that became solid in the blink of an eye. The large figure stood about eight feet tall, with a broad thickly armored green torso, two arms that each ended with a very dangerous looking minigun and three wheeled legs. It's head was the same thick painted metal as the rest of the machine with several vertical slits where an ominous red light spilled forth.

The eldars paused for a second, surprised at the sudden appearance of the Sentry Bot, but quickly recovered and started opening fire. The toxic projectiles struck the automation all over, but I was glad to see that most couldn't penetrate the thick armor and what did get through only struck more metal machinery. Truly the worst thing a poisoned weapon could be used on was a target made of nothing but lifeless metal.

**"Alert: hostiles detected. Lethal force authorized for all units."** The machine said in a mechanically deep voice. Then the world exploded. The miniguns opened fire on the Eldar, shredding the first few rows with explosive 5.56 NATO rounds before the others dodged out of the way.

Unfortunately for the aliens the sentry bot proved the perfect distraction as the humanoid machine behind the sentry disappeared into thin air. I smiled at that. The assaultron was a rather deadly robot even when compared to the death machines that were sentry bots or securitrons. At six and a half feet, they looked down on most humans, could chase down most targets, had claws that could easily crush bone and had a head mounted laser that when fully charged could unleash a beam powerful enough to cut through power armor like butter. This particular model however was known as the Dominator and was nothing short of terrifying. It was tougher, faster, it's claws had been replaced with long impaling blades and was equipped with cloaking technology that made it nearly undetectable until said blades were buried in your chest. Now, one was lose on the battlefield with the sentry drawing everyone's attention.

Unfortunately I couldn't sit back to watch the show. The prisoner was still wounded and probably wouldn't survive the next few minutes without some medical aid. With a running leap I jumped off the building, falling the four stories to the ground. The longfall tech in my leg armored briefly activated and I landed without any issue before putting away the grenade rifle and pulled out Pew Pew once more. I aimed the pistol and hit the dark eldar still holding the prisoner's right arm in the chest. It burned through the armor and into the eldar, but other than a cry of pain they stayed on their feet, going for their rifle. The second beam hit the heart and this time they went down for good. Unfortunately the other eldar had enough time to let got of the craftworlder and bring up their own weapon.

The world slowed down and I just had enough time to duck underneath the toxic splinters before I was in melee range. Holstering Pew Pew, I drew my new chainsword and closed the distance. My first strike was a horizontal slash that the slaver ducked and responded with a lunge with their bayonet. Stepping to the left, I avoided the dangerously sharp blade. Swinging the chainsword upward, the saturnite teeth dug into the rifle and knocked the weapon out of the eldar's hands. Without missing a beat, the alien lunged towards my masked face with their clawed gauntlets. Said lunge ended with a powerful head-butt to the armored face. It didn't do any damage, but it made the alien stumble back and was therefore not ready for a chainsword to the neck. The body stood standing for a few seconds even as the head hit the ground before the body realized it was dead and fell to the dirt.

Dispelling VATS, I reloaded Pew Pew, took a breath to calm my heart before rushing to the now fallen prisoner. They were lying face down and now that I was close I could see just how oddly lean the alien was and turning them over I found out that their humanoid form had something else in common with humans, well two things actually.

"Huh, what do you know? Now come on lady, I don't know what you did to piss off your friends, but I'm guessing dying is not on your agenda." The woman didn't react other than groan softly.

Normally I would be dragging her to safety but I didn't know how strong or delicate the aliens biology was and moving her might just kill her. Hell, giving her medicine might kill her, maybe even coughing in her general direction. Either way, I couldn't just throw her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, I had to do something here in the open.

Thankfully I never went anywhere without access to the miracle medicine that was a stimpak. I pulled out one of the pre-war miracles of medical science, a syringe filled with proteins and chemicals that induced rapid cell division in order to regenerate any wound save a missing limb or organ. Sure the process could be compared to a sort of super cancer, but it always killed itself off before any harm could be done. The only question now was would it work? As far as I knew the stimpaks were compatible with all living creatures seeing as I had tested the medicine on everything from bloatflys to super mutants, all with the same results.

"Well here goes nothing. Oh and sorry before hand if this kills you." I jammed the needle into the wound through the whole in the alien's armor and the contents were injected with a hiss. I waited for a reaction, either good or bad, before trying to move her. The wound closed shut before my eyes and the alien woman let out a loud gasp of air. Her breathing got stronger only for her to start coughing viciously. It was a disgustingly wet sound and I unfortunately knew what was happening all to well.

I grabbed her under the arms and started pulling the eldar behind cover while she started clawing at her helmet. Once behind cover, I kneeled down, grabbed her flailing arms and while she struggled against my grip, I held her still while looking her dead in the optics.

"Hold on calm down! Your wound is healed but your stomach still took a hit. Plenty of blood just got stuck in your digestive tract and your body is trying to dispel it. Now just let me take your helmet off, nice and easy now."

I don't know if she understood me, but she seemed to understand my intention since she calmed down slightly and with shaking hands guided my hands on removing the helmet. I pressed two small barely visible buttons on either side of her head just behind the ears would be and it detached with a near inaudible hiss. The eldar tore her helmet off in the blink of an eye and I only caught a flash of black before I heard retching sounds as the alien got on her hands and knees facing away from me.

After the disgusting deed had been done, she continued panting heavily before falling on her rear and slowly turned towards me. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I was a handsome guy. I practiced good hygiene, stayed in great shape and I had access to great medical resources in the case I got horribly maimed or scarred, which was unfortunately quite a lot. I had used my looks to my advantage, charming information out of normally tight lipped people of both genders. Of course I also charmed my way into the beds of more than a few women. I was no Casanova, I didn't make it a habit but I still had fun when I did indulge in the more carnal needs. Some of those woman had not been the prettiest of creatures but they had usually impressed me with their fighting capabilities, others were more like friends with benefits. A few had been drop dead gorgeous and had they been alive before the war, they would have no doubt been models featured on all sorts of magazines. Even a few of the more raunchy kind. This…alien in front me blew them out of the water.

Her skin was slightly pale yet flawless, she also had a heart shaped face yet had a few sharp features that made her look simultaneously beautiful yet dangerous. She had a small delicate nose and slightly thin bloodstained lips. Her eyes were the color of warm chocolate and were deep enough to get lost in. Her hair was as black as the night sky and pulled back into a small braid with several loose strands framing her face. She also had two long pointed ears on either side of her head. Never before had my comparison to elves seemed more accurate.

She was majestic despite how tired she looked. She was beautiful despite the bloody bile staining her features. She was perfect, and that disturbed me more than anything else. Nothing in nature was perfect. Something like this alien in front of me that was so unnaturally gorgeous just seemed wrong.

"Well…uh…hi?"

Truly you are the master of speech Albert.

"So…you're not dying anymore. That's great. Uh… good luck getting out of the city and back to your non-stabby subordinates because I have places to be. Bye!" I said standing up and giving the alien a small wave before running off.

With the good deed done, I only had to get back to the recon craft and get out of this city. Normally I could just teleport out but I hadn't had the time to send in a probe to establish a network for the planet yet, though the robots would have to stay behind. Speaking of said robots, I glanced over at the battle and noticed the not so insignificant amount of bodies had piled up. Most looked shredded, no doubt the work of the sentry bot, while others looked to have been skewered or cut in half. Never underestimate the power of a blade wielding robot. The robots themselves were not looking in the best of shape. The sentry looked like a oversized cheese grater with all those holes in its armor. The assaultron was visible for just a second as it plunged it's battered blades into the back of a dark eldar and I noticed that it's left arm was sparking and barely functional.

There only seemed to be a dozen aliens still standing, with most of them focusing fire on the sentry bot seeing it as the larger threat. The assaultron on the other hand barely got it blades out of it most recent victim before two large blades slammed into its side, knocking it back some ten feet before standing backup, blades at the ready. I looked towards the robot's attackers and saw the two monstrous body guards from before standing at the ready. The snake man let out what sounded like a mix between a hiss and a roar before the shackled humanoid with the exposed brain stepped forward. It's masked face that was still looking at the ground lifted up until it was glaring right at the assaultron. Then the light emerged from its gaze.

The sight of that glowing yellow light shooting out of a similarly yellow eye made my skin crawl and the little voice of fear in the back of my head started screaming. Hell I swear I even heard agonized screaming coming from the yellow beam and it wasn't even looking at me. What ever that _thing_ was, I wanted no part of it and was more than happy to never experience what that light did first hand. The assaultron on the other hand was drenched in that unholy light and I fully expected it to explode, melt or any other kind of robotic destruction. Instead it just stood there like nothing was happening, but when no harm seemed to befall the robot, it did something that brought back terrifying memories that made me smile. It's single optic started glowing red.

With a loud, powerful 'vroom', the assaultron unleashed a large red beam that struck the brain monster in its masked face. There wasn't even any blood as the things head disappeared and the beam continued on, cutting into the building behind the body guard. With the beam still active, the assaultron turned its gaze towards the four armed snake who seemed to realize that he was in great danger. For a beast with no legs the alien sure could move. It slithered to its right, just managing to stay ahead of the beam, uncaring of the two dark eldar who got in his way and were promptly cut in half by the laser. It wasn't fast enough to escape unscathed however, as the beam hit and instantly melted the sword in its lower left hand. It dropped burning hot handle with what I think was a sizzle before deciding to charge its opponent. Unfortunately the assaultron's attack chose that moment to end and the bottom did not have enough time to cloak before the snake was upon it. With a flurry of lightning fast blows, the machine faltered, it's left arm went sailing through the air while it's right blade blocked two sword strikes before a powerful overhead attack broke the blade. It's optic started gaining that red glow again, but a sword bash to the head bent the neck at an angle that would have killed any living creature. When the snake man saw that his robotic prey was helpless, it moved in and quickly wrapped it's body around the bot like a python, then it used it's muscled tail to crush the steel machine. The metal squealed as it was crushed and the snake man let out another hiss/roar before it's forked tongue licked at the air and it turned to glare at me.

It was just too bad for the snake that the moment he turned his attention towards little 'ol me that he sealed his doom. The robot being crushed in his coils began to let out a whine that started out low before gaining in volume and pitch. The chassis turned from a battered military green to a bright burning orange. Then when the whine reached its climax, the world exploded. The spot where the snake and robot had been erupted into a twenty foot tall mushroom cloud as the assaultron made its fusion core go critical.

Averting my gaze as to not be blinded by the light, I felt something hit my chest that made me stumble back. Looking down, I saw the half charred head of the snake looking back at me with its now dead eyes.

"He he ha! Never underestimate a robot dummy! They will always try to kill you I until their last spark." I said with a chuckle as I kicked the remains away.

The chuckle stopped as a similar explosion went off to my left. Turning towards the second detonation, I was met by the rather evil looking figure of the dark eldar leader walking towards me, with his blade in one hand and a pistol in the other. Behind him lay remains of the sentry bot as it went up in flames. It looked as if it had been run through the chest by something either very powerful or something absurdly sharp. I'm guessing the wicked looking sword the leader was carrying answered that question.

Thankfully he seemed to be the only dark eldar left standing while all the others were either dead or too wounded to be a threat. The horned man strode forward with what could only be called a strut with that familiar grace I had seen from his species. He got within twenty feet before stopping.

"So a mon-keigh is the cause of this?" He looked at his fallen men then back to me.

"Yeah, this monkey has put a lot of your men in the ground today. You might want to run back to your ship before you get put down as well, oh wait! You don't have one I anymore." I said in a dry tone. It warmed my mechanical heart when he growled at the remark.

"You trapped me on this forsaken world?! First our pathetic kin attack us in the middle of a raid and now some little worm believes itself powerful. I will make you suffering legendary." He threatened.

"Bring it you emo son of a bitch."

The world slowed just in time for me to throw myself out of the way of several crystals as the eldar fired his pistol. Drawing my own pistol, I aimed a shot at his head only for him to move out of the way just as I pulled the trigger. He then leapt over the second beam that was aimed at center mass. His response was to fire more of those toxic crystals which I barley managed to avoid, I even felt one graze the side of my helmet. Ducking behind a destroyed fruit stand, I put a new energy cell in the laser pistol and planned my next move. A straight up firefight wouldn't work, the bastard had good instincts and was lightning fast. That pistol of his was the main problem, the bastard was a damn good shot, then again his speed was meaningless if he couldn't see.

Materializing a flashbang, I threw it up and over my cover. I heard his pistol fire again, probably shooting the grenade thinking it was of the lethally explosive variety. Too bad for him it still went off with him looking right at it. With a brilliant flash of light and a loud crack overhead, I jumped out of cover with Pew Pew ready in hand. The aliens head was slightly turned, looking away from the flashbang and was left vulnerable. I fired a laser at that faceless horned helm of his, though I let out a growl of frustration when the beam was mostly reflected by the high quality helmet, though there was now a glowing hot gouge marring the once blank face. Again the slaver recovered more quickly than I thought he would and aimed his weapon at me once more. Of course when any plan fails, one must improvise or die. Shifting my aim to his own weapon, I smiled a little as the weapon in his hand turned to ash before he could pull the trigger.

With the ashes slipping through his fingers and left with only one option, the alien leader charged me with his sword. Knowing I couldn't reload in time, I holstered my laser pistol and did the same with my saturnite chainsword.

With the engine roaring in my hands, I sent a horizontal swing at the xeno who parried the attack and swiped at me with his own blade. Taking a step backwards out of the weapons reach, I just managed to block the reverse swing with the chainsword's teeth. The moving blades caught the sword's edge and was tugged downwards. I was disappointed the saturnite didn't chew through the sword, but I still had no idea what material the alien weapon was made from, so I instead was glad to take advantage of now slightly off balance swordsman.

I planted my knee in his gut and though the armor held firm, I heard the choked gasp as I drove the air from his lungs. Pleased with myself, I swung again, this time at the alien's head. Again the dark eldar blocked the attack, but I managed to maintain the pressure and rained down attack after attack onto my opponent. Sometimes he blocked or parried the blows, others he was able to dodge while a few strikes even managed to clip him. He had already lost his left shoulder spike and his right thigh was bleeding through the new hole in his armor when I gave him a quick kick to the left knee. While it didn't break his leg or even force him to kneel, he did stumble. Seeing my chance, I decided to finally end this duel with a powerful downward slash. The black armored warrior saw this coming and responded with his own upward slash as he let out a roar of rage.

The two instruments of death met with clang and for a moment they struggled against each other in a contest of might. Something would give eventually, and then something did. The saturnite teeth went flying as the body of my sword was cut cleanly in half and I stumbled forward while the eldar regained his footing and stepped closer.

"Oh shit." I mumbled as his sword struck like lightning.

I felt a terrible pain shoot through my abdomen. A glance downwards revealed that the disgustingly sharp, jagged sword was buried almost to the hilt in my guts. I let out an involuntary grunt as the blade was suddenly twisted. Dark laughter filled the air as the alien leaned towards me until we were standing mask to mask.

"You are fast for a mon-keigh. Yet for all your pathetic bluster, here you are dying on my blade. Truly there was no other out come than this. Now be a good wretch and scream for me. Scream so I may drink upon your suffering and agony. Maybe if you please me well enough, I might grant you a quick death."

Looking down at the sword and back at the alien, I fought off the urge to head-butt him, stopping only because it wouldn't do any damage. I was impaled. I should have been clutching at the wound in panic, afraid that I was mortally wounded, maybe even begging for mercy that I knew would never come. No. Instead of all that, I grinned victoriously. That bastard had made the mistake of getting within arms length.

Letting the remains of my chainsword slip from my grasp, I made a show of weakly falling forward, even if it did push the blade further through. The alien laughed again and grabbed ahold of my helmet to try force me to look into his eyes, no doubt to mock me even further. That was when I struck.

Both of his hands were full, one grasping the hilt of the sword and the other lifting my head. Neither moved fast enough to stop me as I grabbed the right arm at the wrist and elbow. Applying as much pressure as I could, the elbow snapped and bent the wrong way. Next, I had to hold on to the broken limb as the dark eldar retaliated with a knee to my gut but my armor negated the blow. Comfortable that the alien couldn't break away, I let go of his elbow, wrapped my arm around his waist and threw us to the ground with me on top. He was flailing around, trying to break my hold on him but I was both stronger and heavier and he only had one usable arm. Sitting up on his chest, I moved my left hand to his armored neck to stop his squirming while I grabbed by boot knife with my right. I plunged the saturnite blade downwards and was briefly stopped when the dark eldar blocked the knife using is hand, getting it impaled for his trouble. Undeterred I put more force behind the knife and despite the alien's struggles, the weapon penetrated the armor and flesh beneath until the weapon was buried to the hilt in his chest. Ripping the blade out of both his chest and hand, I stabbed him again. And again and again.

I stabbed him until I was sure that he was not getting back up, somewhere around three dozen I believe. Satisfied, I took a deep breath of filtered air, where I was painfully reminded that I still resembled a shish kebab.

"Ow ow ow! Damn it. Stupid elf with your stupid chainsaw breaking sword. I just got the damn thing." I grumbled as I inspected the wound. It was sticking out of my abdomen about an inch below the ribcage and a few centimeters to the left of the spine. Thankfully it hadn't hit anything immediately life threatening, so with a grunt of pain and a gush of blood, I pulled the sword out. One stimpak later and the wound was almost completely healed save for a very red scar but that would disappear as well if given time. Checking my pipboy, I was relieved to see that my blood was clear and that the sword wasn't poisoned.

Dragging myself off the body and to my feet proved more difficult than I was expecting. I was tired, my body was sore and my nerves were probably fried from all the alien neurotoxins I had been forced to endure. The battle was over and now I just wanted a quick nap.

The sound of sharp footsteps destroyed that idea as I turned to see two dozen more dark eldar warriors lining up in several formations, with all their rifles aimed at me.

"Fuck."

Tightening my grip on the eldar sword, I grinned a little bit. There was no cover nearby and as fast as I was during VATS, I didn't fancy my chances dodging that many projectiles. No way was I going to survive that sort of onslaught, would probably be shredded by those damn shards. Oh well, I had lived far longer than a man like me had any right too. I had cheated death thousands of times and if it had finally come to collect, who was I to question it? However there was not a snowball's chance in hell that I was going to go quietly.

My muscles tightened, my breath quickened and just before I could move an inch, all hell broke loose.

The sky briefly darkened and dark grey clouds swirled just overhead and with the roar only nature could produce, lightning rained down upon the dark eldar. Blue bolts of electricity impacted the black armored warriors, with many of them being blown apart while others simply dropped to the ground. Some were quicker to act and tried to run for it, only for the lightning to arc directly towards the fleeing aliens. None escaped the storm's wrath.

Then just as suddenly as it began the storm ended, yet only when the last xeno fell. Standing there wide eyed I wasn't quite sure what to do. The chances of that being just a freaky weather anomaly was just as likely as me giving up drinking. I turned when I heard slow footsteps from behind me.

The female eldar was standing there using her now recovered sword as a cane with her other hand outstretched, though she still looked weak. Her breathing was heavy and wisps of bluish energy wafted off her fingertips.

"Oh! You did that. That was pretty damn amazing."

She glanced at me and I swear she flashed me a small smile before her legs started wobbling and she collapsed to the ground. Running over to her fallen form, I checked her for anymore possible injuries. Thankfully it only seemed to have fainted from exhaustion rather than from anything life threatening Impalement tends to take a lot out of you.

"Thanks for the save miss space elf. I'll just consider us as even on life debts. Now what to do with you? I could just leave. I'm pretty sure you'd be relatively safe with no one else around, then you could get some rest and you should be right as rain. Who knows, maybe some of your alien friends will find you if they come back for your body. Or they might want to finish the job.

Ah, damn me and my bleeding heart!" I said with a scowl under my mask

Grabbing her weapon, I tuck both swords under my belt and picked the tall woman up in a bridal carry before jogging back to the recon craft. I was not looking forward to the lecture Curie would no doubt give me on how to properly handle an unknown alien species. Though I couldn't fight off the happy smile making its way onto my lips. Today hadn't been to bad after all.

**…**

**And thus Albert killed sadistic slavers, rescued the damsel in distress and maybe found a new crew member. Now keep in mind that Albert is not some genocidal Imperial, he cares not for your species, only your character. If he doesn't like that THEN he'll murder your ass. **

**Now some of you are probably the wondering about the eldar and why she got stabbed by her subordinates. Aren't the eldar notoriously overprotective of their own species? Well I'll just be vague and tell you there's a story behind that.**

**Now I'm going to ask you all for some help. You see I know exactly what the main plot of this story will be and how it ends, but before that happens there needs to be a few side quests for our dear wastelander to undertake. What fallout Crossover wouldn't? So what I'm asking you is to give me ideas. Leave a Review or PM but I would like some opinions. Hell just tell me what you think as more reviews always make me want to write faster. **

**Now you all to safe and have a good day.**


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